MiB - TLC
by lovelunarchron
Summary: AU. Kai, Wolf, Thorne, and Jacin work for the undercover organization Men in Black, regulating incoming Lunars, who—unbeknownst to Earthens—come to Earth and sometimes use their glamour illegally. Part 1: Kai vows to track down the unidentified Lunar cyborg who managed to evade capture. Part 2: Thorne's romantic entanglements begin to interfere with a highly classified mission.
1. Chapter 1

**MiB - TLC**

_**by lovelunarchron**_

* * *

This fic will be divided into shorter stories within the larger one, which each one focused on one of the agents. We'll start with Kai.

_Men In Black_ belongs to Sony Pictures and _The Lunar Chronicles_ belongs to Marissa Meyer.

Cover image by tumblr user mf-islands.**  
**

* * *

**Agent K**

Kai scrambled back up as fast as he could without losing his balance. He surveyed the distance from this rooftop to the next, ignoring the way the ground swayed beneath his feet from this high up. He brushed the sweaty black bangs out of his face and calculated. After gauging how long of a stride he'd need, he doubled back quickly to push his feet as hard as he could into the concrete.

Kai barreled towards the ledge and used the momentum to push his body into the air, taking the imminent plunge down one story. The force of of the wind against his lungs threatened to overpower him but he held his breath, falling several feet until he landed with a loud thud.

Kai checked himself over for ten seconds: no broken body parts, only a dull throbbing in his right knee. Nothing some ice wouldn't take care of.

His target had turned around when she'd heard him land. She looked surprised when she realized he was still chasing her, but just as quickly, her surprised look turned into irritation. Kai wanted to close the distance between them so he could really trap her, but he knew any move on his part would cause her to run again.

He'd need her to come to him.

"There's no use in running anymore," he called out. "We've been at this game for almost twenty minutes, and now I've got you surrounded."

Her expression became amused. Kai knew he wasn't a good liar. She would probably call his bluff.

"Let's test that theory, shall we?"

He heard a familiar beep, followed by writing that scrolled across his vision on the inner lens of his specialty-made sunglasses:

BIOELECTRICAL MANIPULATION DETECTED. INITIALIZING RESISTANCE.

She was definitely calling his bluff. The wattage reading he was getting on his Glamour Meter showed that she was, in fact, _very _powerful. One Glamour Blocker probably wouldn't be enough to stop her. He cursed himself for not having an extra one on hand. Maybe he could at least slow her down momentarily until the others guys got there. He'd need back-up for sure.

Another beep. BIOELECTRICITY MANIPULATION BLOCKED.

Kai grinned as the girl looked at him expectantly before her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Then she pressed her lips in concentration. She had likely assumed that he was just chasing her for being a common criminal. Little did she know just how much his agency tracked them.

"Your powers won't work on me, Lunar. This is what I do. I catch glamour-happy Lunars like you who break the law."

Realization dawned on her face and she let out a high-pitched laugh. "Oh really?" she sneered. "You think some Earthen is going to get in my way? Be able to stop _me_?"

She came closer now, and Kai knew that it would only take a few more meters before she'd be close enough for a hit. His Glamour Meter was in the red zone, though.

Dangerously high.

"Thought you were just a Shell," she said. "But this makes it even easier. I won't even have to hurt my own kind." She stopped a few feet short of where he needed her to be, so he took a step towards her. She took a step back immediately. Then she lifted her hand and pointed a finger at him—a metal finger that protruded out of her glove. How had he not noticed that before?

"You pointing at me?" he joked, still trying to distract her.

But the joke was short-lived. A projectile shot out of her fingertip before Kai could react. It glanced off his shoulder just enough to cut through his shirt and a piece of skin. He grunted from the impact, though quickly recovered, and went to raise his own weapon, but the girl was already jumping to the next rooftop. He began his fourth pursuit—his fourth rooftop—in just a matter of minutes. When he landed on this one, though, the pain in his shoulder was almost too much to bear. His adrenaline was likely wearing off.

He tried to run after her but she had too much of an advantage by now. He watched helplessly as she pulled out a rope and looped it skillfully around the chimney of a much higher building. The girl hoisted herself up and soon was far beyond his reach. When she made it to the chimney, he knew he'd lost her.

"You're not terribly ugly for an Earthen, you know," she called over her shoulder with a laugh before she disappeared out of his sight.

Kai hunched over his knees to catch his breath before he decided to check his wound. It wasn't deep at all, but it still had some blood. After he wiped it away, it looked like she might have hit him with a rusty nail or something similar. Good thing he was up to date on his tetanus shot.

He heard huffing behind him as Jacin finally caught up. "Kai! You alright?"

"She headed that way." Kai pointed where the girl had disappeared. "I lost her behind the chimney."

"Don't worry, Wolf's tracking her too," said Jacin. "Hopefully he'll catch her on the ground when she finally gets off these blasted roofs. She seems to be a good runner."

"Tell me about it."

"I think you need a break," he said. "Thorne's got the hover. We'll wait for Wolf there."

* * *

"What'd I miss?" asked Thorne lazily when they both got in the back of his hover.

Kai scowled at him. "I could have used your help out there, you know."

Thorne shrugged. "She was your target. Figured you could handle it."

"This was different. The wattage reading on that one was off the charts. Her glamour was _incredible_."

"I know," Thorne replied. "I was tracking the wattage grids in the area while you were up there. Powerful stuff."

"She must have really been trying to manipulate you," said Jacin.

"She was. My Glamour Blocker kicked in, but I didn't know if it'd be able to resist much longer."

Thorne and Jacin exchanged a look.

"Is your GB on the fritz?" asked Jacin.

"I don't think so. But the wattage on that girl was just…too high for it, I think. Red zone."

"Red zone?" said Thorne in awe. "I didn't see that from down here."

Kai stared at him for a moment. "Look at the charts again. Maybe you were too busy checking yourself out in the mirror the first time to watch the grids carefully enough."

Thorne made a face at him, but pulled out his portscreen to double-check. A knock on the door startled them.

Wolf.

He took shotgun next to Thorne and cracked his knuckles. "She got away," he growled. "I couldn't get an ID, either."

"Me neither," Kai and Jacin said in unison, then stared at each other. The three of them turned to Thorne, who busied himself with his port. "Uh, me neither," he said sheepishly.

"Thorne!" Wolf sounded exasperated. "If you're the one on surveillance, you gotta watch for these things."

"No need to panic," said Thorne after a few minutes, pulling up a page for them to see. "The reason we're not finding anything is because there _was_ no ID number."

"So she's unregistered? An illegal?"

"Probably," he said.

"You'd think with readings like that we would have noticed her before. Seen inconsistencies among the Lunar database," Kai pointed out.

"Maybe she's just arrived. Snuck in somehow."

Jacin frowned. "Wouldn't be the first time."

Kai shook his head. "She didn't seem like she was new. That girl knew her way around."

"Well, no sense in sitting here all night discussing it," Thorne said. "Let's get back to base. See if any Lunar ID chips have been disactivated recently just in case."

The hover roared to life and Thorne drove them quickly through the dimly-lit city streets. Kai stayed silent, watching the rooftops around him for a sign of anything. He couldn't believe he'd let her get away. This should have been an easy arrest. He'd underestimated her ability to escape, and definitely underestimated her glamour. Kai knew he'd need a stronger Glamour Blocker if they were ever going to catch her. That is, if she ever showed her face in New Beijing again. He shook his head. It wasn't likely.

The image of the girl shooting him with her metal finger returned to his mind when he felt a brief ache in his shoulder. A Lunar cyborg. Now _there_ was a first. And maybe, just maybe, a clue to her identity.


	2. Chapter 2

The New Beijing Market wasn't particularly crowded at this time of night, though there were always a few booths that remained open to stragglers who might be looking for a late night snack. During the day, this part of the city made for the perfect cover for the MiB base headquarters, which was strategically located beneath the market.

One only had to know which booth to approach (the mechanic), how many android parts to report broken (two), and which person would be making the payment for the replacements (the Emperor himself). Then the mechanic, who was of course an MiB agent undercover, would tell the customer that it was too much of an honor for her to accept payment on behalf of the Emperor. But if the customer offered to take her to a ball instead, she would invite him or her inside to show off the replacement parts she had in her storage area.

Once inside, an old android (whose name needed to be provided), would then scan the customer's retina for MiB identification. If the identification matched, the agent would allow the customer to climb through a trapdoor behind the discarded cyborg parts, thus descending into the base. Since the market was so crowded, it went unnoticed that the so-called customers didn't come back out.

Kai supposed that it probably also helped that all the neighboring booths were staffed by MiB employees pretending to sell jewelry or mouth-watering delicacies. It was the only entrance available on this side of the city. The base connected to a spiderweb of tunnels that made for easy access to different podship, hover, and spaceship storage garages, not to mention the only Lunar port entrance in the Eastern Commonwealth.

Thorne lived very close to New Beijing Market, though, so no one was surprised when he pulled into a non-MiB authorized garage nearby and made them walk to the main entrance through the market. Kai was certain that Thorne also enjoyed flirting with the MiB agent who posed as a mechanic, but so far she'd proven immune to his charms.

Entering the market at night, however, was not Thorne's greatest judgment call. Since there were less people around, discretion was nearly impossible. The four of them had to stagger their entrances so as to not draw suspicion. Jacin was particularly annoyed at Thorne, and kept muttering little threats of uninstalling his Glamour Blocker while he was sleeping just for putting them in unnecessary danger. Thorne retorted that once Jacin took it out, he could recommend just where Jacin could shove that GB. Wolf and Kai ignored their usual bickering.

When the four of them were safely underground, they checked in at the lobby and put their glasses in their pockets; they wouldn't need them down here. Kai, however, kept his at the ready. He was certain that Rikan and Torin would want to examine the readings he'd gotten while pursuing the Lunar cyborg and compare them to Thorne's port. Although they'd chastised him in the car, Kai knew that the three of them—not even Jacin—would never rat out Thorne's lack of attention during the chase. They'd been on the same team too long to know that even if one of them messed up, all of them would take the blame.

Of course, that didn't mean they couldn't rip on him in private.

After they'd debriefed with Rikan, their boss, the four of them decided to head to the MiB cafeteria until he'd conferred with Torin, their other boss, on what their next move should be. It wasn't often that the Lunars they pursued evaded capture or interrogation. Kai made a quick detour to the infirmary to pick up some bandages and disinfectant for his shoulder.

"I just don't get it," said Kai, once they'd finally settled into a booth with their food. "How is it possible that her reading was that high and we've never noticed her before?"

"She's gotta be new around these parts," Wolf shrugged as he dipped a pork bun into some soy sauce. "It's the only explanation."

"No," said Jacin, "I was thinking about it on the ride over. Maybe during her registration, she held back with her glamour."

"Can they even do that?" asked Kai.

Jacin just shrugged. "Who knows, do I look like a Lunar to you? If that's one of their tricks, it's not like they'd give it away. Maybe when we built the Glamour Blockers we underestimated just how powerful the Lunars could be."

"It's a possibility," said Thorne as he loosened his tie and took a pork bun from Jacin's plate. "I think when they developed the prototype they were only able to use a few Lunars for the trial run."

"But you're forgetting that we couldn't ID her," Kai insisted. "So either she's unregistered—an illegal—or she managed to somehow de-active her ID chip."

"Well, Rikan said he'd check on that," said Wolf. "Just eat. Don't worry about it right now."

"Wolf, I lost my target. That doesn't happen to me. I'm not letting it go."

"She's just a Lunar," said Thorne.

"She's one of the most powerful Lunars we've seen since we started working here. Red Zone, remember? And obviously she needed to glamour the guy at the store for a reason. Why else would she risk being exposed just to steal some food?"

"Who cares about the food, Kai?" Thorne was looking at him strangely now. "The point is, she broke the law. No glamour. No exceptions. They know the rules. That's why we're employed."

"Maybe she was hungry."

"You're _not_ defending her," said Thorne, raising his eyebrows in disbelief.

"I think," Wolf interjected, "that Thorne makes a decent point. If she were so hungry, she wouldn't have been able to outrun you. _Jacin _couldn't even outrun you last night."

Kai puffed up a little even as Jacin smirked next to him in silence. It was a well-known fact that Jacin was one of the fastest field agents in all of MiB. Kai had gotten a headstart on this one, though, but he wasn't about to share that fact.

"She said I wasn't 'terribly ugly' for an Earthen," he finally admitted. "What is that even supposed to mean?"

"It means you're a babe, Kai," said Thorne, laughing.

Kai shot him a glare. "It's not like we look any different than them underneath the glamour."

"Maybe she'll have her Lunar boyfriend put on some of your features for her," Thorne continued. "You know, spice it up."

Jacin rolled his eyes at him. "You're an idiot. If she's trying to remain inconspicuous, she probably has an Earthen boyfriend, if she even has one at all. If her so-called Lunar boyfriend was glamouring anyone, even himself, we'd know."

"Would we, though?" Kai wondered aloud.

"Yes," said Jacin firmly, "we would. Wattage grids."

Kai returned to his food as the guys picked up with non-work related topics. He hoped that Rikan and Torin would come back with further instructions for him. Something didn't make sense. Why weren't they as bothered by it as he was? Hadn't everyone else been dumbfounded just hours ago in the hover?

He wanted to know what this Lunar cyborg was doing. Why she'd stolen the food and why she'd bothered to glamour a simple shopkeeper. With glamour power like hers, she could brainwash dozens of people at once and have them do her bidding at will. So why stop at robbing a supermarket—and not even for money?

Maybe he could start by looking into cybernetic operations. It wasn't a topic he'd given much thought. He also hadn't known that Lunars would subject themselves to such 'degrading' operations. They_ hated_ cyborgs. His mind was full of questions, and yet he did have one resolve: he didn't want to give this one up. She was still his target.


	3. Chapter 3

"Cybernetic operations are hardly a new thing," said Dr. Dimitri Erland condescendingly. "Surely you must have learned all about them in your training, Agent K." He peered over his shoulder at Kai while he simultaneously pulled some schematics up on the enormous netscreen in front of him.

Kai stood straighter, hoping that the way he easily towered over the short man in front of him would cause MiB's most renowned scientist to feel intimidated, instead of the other way around. He had no such luck. In fact, every encounter he'd ever had with Dr. Erland had left him thoroughly creeped out. His eagerness to push limits and try ground-breaking experiments had never settled well with Kai's conscience.

It was Dr. Erland, after all, who had suggested the Lunar Registration in the first place, and conducted the trials to develop the first Glamour Blockers. He'd heard rumors that whatever had taken place during those trials had been highly unethical, but Rikan and Torin had encouraged him to focus on the greater good that had resulted from any possible misconduct. Besides, they'd argued, they were _just _rumors.

In this case, however, Dr. Erland was the first person that Kai thought to turn to in search of the escaped Lunar cyborg. It'd been over a week now since his encounter with her. Though he'd had plenty of other cases to deal with since then, he was pleased to finally have a day off and thus, time to search for her. Surely if there were anything he should know about cyborgs and Lunars, Dr. Erland would be able to tell him. Kai just had to let go of his pride for the next half hour, it seemed.

"We covered everything related to _Lunars_," Kai said. "This includes their belief that cyborgs are an abomination. Like I already said, I'm trying to figure out why a Lunar would then be a cyborg as well."

"So basically, you know nothing."

Kai stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Enlighten me, Doctor."

The doctor smirked, adjusted the hat that barely covered his balding head, and returned to the netscreen. "Tell me exactly what you saw."

"She pointed her finger at me, only it wasn't a human finger. It was a cyborg finger. Then she shot me with a rusty nail." Kai pulled the nail that he'd picked off the ground after the pursuit from his pocket and held it out to the doctor.

He picked it up eagerly. "Very interesting."

"What is?"

"To the untrained eye, this nail would mean nothing. However, see these little grooves?"

Kai stared. "No."

Dr. Erland sighed disapprovingly, but slid the nail under an arm-like contraption to the right of them. The nail became a giant on the netscreen. There were, in fact, a small amount of grooves on the head, though how Dr. Erland had seen them with his bare eyes boggled his mind.

"These grooves are typically made by the machine that holds the material in place while the nail is manufactured. As you can see, it's quite the Earthen nail."

Kai stared at him blankly again. "How do you know?"

"Nails made by a Lunar would have different grooves, because their primary building material for these sorts of things is regolith."

"So this is metal."

"Indeed, Agent K."

"And…?" Kai felt so stupid.

"It means the nail was purchased here on Earth. If her cyborg hand is compatible with that nail, then it is also plausible that the cybernetic operation took place on Earth, or her hand would have been developed to withstand regolith nails instead."

Kai's head felt like it was swimming. "But isn't it obvious that she got her operation here on Earth? They don't do those on Luna."

"Of course it's obvious." Dr. Erland turned back to the netscreen and pulled up the schematics again. "The Lunar you are searching for has not arrived recently, Agent K. She would have had to get to Earth, have the procedure, and then also undergo the necessary recovery time. I can begin a search for operations in recent years that included cyborg hands with projectiles."

"How long would that take?"

He tinkered with the commands of the netscreen. "A while. May I suggest that you take the nail to the ballistics department and ask them to run an…extraordinary…search to see if they can't figure out where this nail came from? I'd imagine the Lunar will likely need to re-stock her supply eventually."

Kai breathed a sigh of relief. He could still get her. He turned to leave the lab, but paused at the door.

"But Lunars are so vain. Why would she do it?"

"Perhaps she was in a grave accident and preferred the operation over death or deformity. They are vain, like you said, but sometimes self-preservation does kick in." After a moment, Dr. Erland grinned wickedly, and Kai felt goosebumps run down his spine. "You be sure to ask her, Agent K, when you find her. Of course, alert me to her capture. I'd love to meet her myself. She would make a very _unique _subject for me."

Kai shivered as he tried to picture the girl he'd chased on one of Dr. Erland's medical slabs. "If I capture her, you'll of course hear about it. Thank you for your time, Dr. Erland. Please send me those operation files if you stumble across anything."

* * *

"Remind me again what we're doing here," said Wolf gruffly.

He'd been the only one that Kai had been able to convince to come down to the old manufacturing plant in the eastern part of New Beijing at 3:00 A.M. That was how long it had taken ballistics to trace the rusty nail, and once Kai had traced the location of the plant, he hadn't wanted to miss any opportunity for scouting it out. Thorne would never have woken up at 3:00 A.M. for any assignment that he wasn't absolutely required to take part in. Jacin, on the other hand, had taken the weekend off to visit with Winter, so Wolf was the only person left.

Not that he didn't like Wolf—the two of them got along just fine—but he was certainly the most intense out of the three of them. Sometimes, his presence was exhausting. He could have used a little bit of Thorne's jokes right now, when his palms were sweaty from holding his portscreen so hard. His eyes were trained on it, waiting for any type of wattage reading to pop up on the grid.

"Kai?" asked Wolf again, pulling the port away from him. "You said this was important."

"I'm tracking down the Lunar cyborg," he finally admitted. "This plant could be a lead."

"Because…she works in a factory?" Wolf's face remained neutral, though Kai noted a hint of disdain in his voice. He was clearly not happy at Kai's revelation, but trying hard to hide it. Maybe Wolf was the better choice of companion after all. At least he wasn't mocking him.

"I don't know what she does," said Kai, snatching back his port and eyeing it hungrily. "The nail she shot me with comes from this plant. Maybe we'll see someone connected to her. Or maybe we'll even get lucky and she'll stop by to pick up more nails."

"Kai," said Wolf gruffly, but admittedly with more patience than usual. "Listen to yourself. It's 3:00 A.M. Who purchases anything at 3:00 A.M.?"

"Someone who's trying to hide something," said Kai firmly.

Wolf cleared his throat. "Have you considered that though the nails are manufactured here, they may not actually be sold here? There's always a middle man involved in large operations like this."

Kai gripped his port tighter. In his eagerness to find a clue, it suddenly dawned on him that he really hadn't thought this through. "No matter. On my next day off, I'll track down all the places these little babies are sold. Maybe she doesn't come straight to the source, like you said. But I'm going to go in anyway and ask them if a girl who fits her description"—he whipped out a sketch that he'd had an artist compile for him—"has stopped by recently. I'll ask the sellers too. Someone will eventually recognize her."

Wolf raised his eyebrows as he took the sketch in his hands. "When did you get this done? Do Rikan and Torin know about this?"

"No," said Kai defensively, "it was my own initiative. My target. You remember."

"I lost her too, you know," said Wolf, handing back the sketch.

"All the more reason for me to find her. _In fact_, what do you think about putting up some extra Glamour Meters near the possible points of interest I track down? Our grids would be more likely to pick up on any unusual activity then."

Wolf frowned. "You're becoming obsessed with this girl, Kai, acting like we're on some sort of stakeout and without any orders no less. I think it would be wise for us to head back before anyone figures out what you're up to."

As Wolf turned the hover back on, Kai thought about what he'd said. _Was_ he obsessed with her? No, he wasn't. He just wanted justice, that's all. He also didn't want to be a notch lower than the other agents just because he couldn't get his target. And he didn't want someone possibly dangerous to run around the streets of New Beijing. Not under his watch.

When he was finally back in his apartment and managed to fall asleep, Kai dreamed of being shot over and over again by the rusty nail. The Lunar cyborg taunted him as she shot him, but the more he listened to her speak, the more he became overwhelmed by the power of her voice. Before he knew what was happening, her voice turned into that of Dr. Erland's, and it was Kai who was strapped to a table in one of his labs.

Kai woke up in a cold sweat.

* * *

A week and a half later, Kai came back late from a celebratory dinner with the guys. They'd just captured an agent-turned-rogue who had been illegally smuggling Lunars into New Beijing behind everyone's back. Victory was sweet, and the wine they'd had to celebrate had been even sweeter. He was taken by great surprise, then, when the moment after he'd collapsed into bed, a hand suddenly strained against his throat, pinning him to the bed and making it almost impossible to breathe. Dazed but suddenly alert, his eyes snapped open.

Large brown eyes glared down only millimeters away from his face. Wait, he recognized those eyes…

"Don't move," she hissed. She prodded his neck with her free hand. "Or I'll shoot this right through your jugular."

Already finding it hard to breathe, Kai tried to slow his racing heart. _It was her_. Agent calculations whizzed through his head. Her finger should be treated like a knife against his throat. He could take her down perhaps in thirty more seconds, if he could catch her by surprise. His Glamour Blocker was obviously still on. Even if she used all her powers, it would still take a while before it was in the Red Zone for too long and overheated. That should be enough time to change the game and regain control.

Kai held up his hands, which made her flinch and stab her finger dangerously closer. "Easy there, Lunar," he managed to cough out. The hand that gripped his throat loosened only slightly to give him more air to talk. If she hadn't killed him yet, she definitely wanted something from him. "I'm not going to hurt you." _Yet_, he added silently.

"Heard you were looking for me," she spat.

"You heard right."

"You just had to go put up all those sketches of me, didn't you?" Her face was so close that in any other circumstance, it would have been very intimate. Her brown eyes narrowed into slits when he licked his lips on purpose. "So I thought I'd make this easy for you."

She retracted her cyborg finger, and Kai's two hands immediately flew to the one she had gripped around his throat, and for a second they struggled against each other. He managed to pry her fingers away, but just as he began to feel triumph, her other hand flew back to his face with a dirty rag. A pungent smell hit his nostrils and he realized a second too late what that smell was: chloroform.

"Goodnight, Earthen," he heard the girl whisper as her face faded into nothingness.


	4. Chapter 4

His head throbbed. Light shone against his eyelids, but he refused to open them. If he could just sleep a little more, maybe his headache would go away. Besides, the alarm on his port hadn't sounded, so he must still have time to snooze. The thought bothered him—why _hadn't_ his alarm rung? He was usually up before dawn. Was it Saturday? Kai forced one groggy eyelid open, then the other. The room swam in front of him. He regretted having wine last night. But he hadn't really had more wine than usual, had he? Why did he feel like he had a massive hangover? And why were his arms and legs so heavy?

Kai let out a groan of indifference and intended to roll to his side, but gravity felt strange. He realized with a start that he was sitting up against a wall, instead of lying down, and something was keeping him from moving properly. Something on his legs. Something on his hands. He blinked a few times, trying to process what was going on, before he finally looked down.

He really wasn't in his bed. His hands had thick ropes tied around them, and his legs were bound beneath him in a similar fashion. Had one of his missions gone wrong? Why was it so bright in the room?

"You're awake."

Kai forced his head up and realized with a start that the outline of a woman stood in the corner of the bright room, her silhouette illuminated by several spotlights, all focused on Kai. He squinted. "Hello? Where am I?"

"Exactly where you wanted to be. In my presence, right?"

Her voice was a sneer, but it was soft and controlled. She stepped closer, and the Lunar cyborg practically appeared in front of him.

Oh.

_That._

He tried to calm his pounding head and think rationally. Think like an agent. He'd been in worse situations before.

"Kind of Second Era, isn't?" he drawled, putting as much confidence as he could muster into the question.

"What is?" she asked, folding her arms.

"This whole tie-me-up-in-rope thing. What, you run out of advanced technology or something?"

Her retort with thick with sarcasm. "Right, because Earthens give Lunars so much access to that stuff around here."

"Considering the current predicament I find myself in, I can't say that you have much reason to argue against any of our policies at the moment."

She huffed. "Your current predicament is of your own doing. I gave you the opportunity to let it go when I ran away from you."

"You broke the law," he said calmly. "You're under arrest and required to come in for questioning."

"Please. You're hardly in a state to make demands right now."

"Not making demands. Just telling you the facts."

"Fact is you don't know what you're talking about," she said coming closer still. She paused before adding, "I've been asking around about you, you know."

"I'm flattered."

"Not _you_, specifically, Earthen. Just your little organization."

He laughed, but it made him feel slightly nauseas. "I'm not part of any organization."

"Please. I paid attention when you said that you catch…what was it? _Glamour-happy Lunars_ like me."

"I do," he said, shrugging. "Just because I'm tied up right now doesn't mean that I'm not going to catch you."

"For your information, I was using my glamour _for a good cause_."

"There's no such thing," he said. "Taking away someone's free will is never okay."

"You don't know anything."

Kai blinked a few times and tried to roll out the crick in his neck. He forced his voice to sound bored. "Is there a point here? Because we can always just chit-chat over some tea and egg rolls instead. What do you say?"

She narrowed her eyes. He gave her an easy smile.

"How were you able to resist my glamour?" she asked.

He began to pick at the rope discretely with his thumb. "Why don't you tell me your name first?"

"Why don't you stop being so irritating?"

He smiled again. "Your name."

"No."

He shrugged. "Fine. Then I'm not telling you anything."

She threw her hands up. "Stupid Earthen! This could be so easy if you would just cooperate. I would let you go home, you know."

"First rule of holding someone hostage: you don't tell them they can go home. It's hardly an incentive to make them say anything."

Her irritation grew, and it illuminated her features in the light. She was definitely an amateur to be running this sort of operation. Perhaps she wasn't as dangerous as he had thought before. And yet, her glamour was still dangerous. _That_ he was sure of.

"Let's play a game then, shall we?"

"I like games," he said, still fiddling with the rope. "How does this one go?"

"I'm going to use my glamour on you until you tell me how you were able to resist me. And any other information I want."

"Do your worst." The words came out dry and carefree, but Kai's gut twisted with a little bit of panic. She clearly didn't know about his Glamour Blocker. She wasn't aware that she'd made it go in the red zone. He'd have to escape before she managed to fry his GB.

The Lunar cyborg closed her eyes. Kai half-expected her to begin chanting. He felt nothing, besides nakedness without his usual sunglasses and port to tell him what the Glamour Readings were. He had no idea when she'd be close enough to destroy it; close enough to destroy _him_ for all it was worth.

"I'm a Shell," he said, a bit lamely, trying to distract her.

"Wrong answer," she said, opening her eyes a crack. "I already knew you weren't a shell. I wouldn't be calling you _Earthen _otherwise."

"You might want to come up with a nickname because let me tell you, there's quite a few of us. It could be hard for you to keep track of your dates."

She ignored him. He clawed at the rope with his fingernail, making it bleed. The rope wasn't budging though.

"What's…wrong…with…your…bioelectricity!" she muttered to herself, frustrated. "There's got to be a trick."

_Yeah, there is_, he thought, getting a bit more desperate. He stopped trying to hide his escape attempts and moved his wrists against the binds. What was wrong with him? He should be able to get out of this and then some. Maybe he could break his thumbs against the rope too, like handcuffs. The rope was wrapped too tightly around his hands and entwined up his arms.

"Got the time?" he asked. The girl ignored him again. He hoped that the guys would figure out that he was missing. Maybe it was even midday and they were worried that he hadn't shown up for work. Maybe they'd activate the tracker under his ear to find him. Maybe they could get to him before he spilled all their secrets. He wrestled against the rope more. _Stars alive_, she certainly could tie knots.

Kai felt a warm sensation in his wrist. Something was burning under his skin. He swore under his breath at the heat and what it meant: her glamour must be frying his GB. He rolled and propelled himself upward, managing to stand up as the girl paid him no attention save the eyes she kept glued on him, her whole face scrunched up in concentration. He tried to move but fell pathetically to the ground due to his bound legs. The floor felt damp against his hands as he tried to shield his body from the impact.

The headache he'd been nursing since he woke up suddenly vanished. He rolled over to face the girl, and was astonished by how beautiful she looked. She was radiant, electrifying, a deity. _No_, he thought, _it's a Lunar trick. _Kai dug his nails into his skin and tried to focus on the hours upon hours he'd tried to withstand glamour in his training. Kai had never been very good at resisting. Dr. Erland said he had a weak mind—which must be why this girl was so beautiful right now, and why he wanted to help her. No, she was dangerous, she was a lawbreaker, and she needed to be punished. But how could someone with a face like hers _not_ be innocent?

"You want to help me," she cooed. "I can feel your struggle. Just let go."

Kai felt compliance course through him. He _did _want to help her. She was sad. Lonely. Scared. And Kai needed her to be okay.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Kai," he said. A little voice told him that he was doing a good job by telling her everything. She would keep his secrets. She could be trusted.

"Kai, who do you work for?"

"MiB. The Men in Black. We regulate Lunars on Earth."

"Good," she said, smiling encouragingly. He liked it when she smiled.

"You're pretty," he said.

She laughed. It was musical. "How did you resist my glamour, Kai?"

Kai struggled with his thoughts. He couldn't remember anymore why he wasn't supposed to tell her that. But…she had asked him so nicely. She still needed help. Maybe this information would help her. "I have a Glamour Blocker."

"What's that?"

"It's a special technology developed by the MiB. Only way we can catch you. As the name suggests, it blocks glamour."

"But this time it didn't work."

Hadn't it? "Oh."

"Where is your Glamour Blocker?"

"In my wrist. It's a part of my ID chip."

"So it's not removable?"

"You can get extra Glamour Blockers and carry them on your person, but you have to get special access privileges. It's not often we meet Lunars who are that strong. Rare, in fact. Until…" He stared at her. "Until _you_." Her glamour was too strong—he remembered now, her glamour was in the red zone. She…

"Don't try to fight it," she said quietly. "You're doing a great job by helping me."

"Okay," he said.

"How did you develop these Glamour Blockers?"

"Experimentation on Shells." The Lunar looked taken aback—upset even. But why was she upset? He had helped, hadn't he? "Don't be sad," he said.

"Tell me about this experimentation," she demanded, her voice no longer calm.

Kai scrunched up his face, contemplative. "There's a research team. When Lunars started coming to Earth and we discovered that there were Shells among them, the research team figured out a way to extract whatever genetic makeup caused them to block bioelectricity manipulation." He shrugged. "I'm not very good at science. Terrible, in fact, so I don't know for sure. But the Shells rebelled against them, refusing to work for MiB or to help them. Eventually they had to be let go because it was becoming unethical."

"I'll say," she breathed. "Betrayed by our own kind."

"We're going to catch you," he said. "My team will come for you." It was a warning for her. She needed to escape before the others got there. He knew they'd come.

"Why didn't you kill me on the rooftop?"

"Kill you? I could never kill you, beautiful." He winked. A strong urge to stop sweet-talking with her and get on with what she was really asking surged into his mind. "We don't want to kill you. Those who break the law have to come in for an interrogation, sometimes to be arrested." He thought of Dr. Erland's research facility. "Sometimes for experimentation."

Her worried face was back. She walked over to a table on the other side of the room, and Kai's thoughts returned to normal_. Spades and stars, she'd gotten away with it! _

"You're a despicable human being," he spat.

She muttered a disinterested "hmm."

"So what have you got planned next?" His temper was getting the best of him. "You going to have me propose to you because your glamour is _so breathtaking_?"

She rubbed her temple. "I'm trying not to glamour you that much, okay? I really went easy on you. I _could _make you propose. _Could_ make you torture yourself. _Could_ make you kill yourself."

"You're disgusting."

"Please stop talking."

"Of course," he said, a fresh desire to do anything she asked bursting from his insides. Maybe if he was quiet, she would be happy.

"I just need information. I promise I'm going to let you go."

Kai wasn't sure if he wanted to go, though. He would be content staying here with her, forever, as long as he could look at the way her chestnut hair fell against her shoulders every day. He sighed with joy as he gazed upon her.

"Stop falling in love with me," she said.

"Okay," he replied. "But we could go on a date, maybe, to see if we _could _fall in love."

She groaned. "Ugh, you're better company when you're mad at me."

Kai shook his head, aware again. He went back to concentrating on the blasted ropes. He clearly hadn't made any progress on them since he'd started. As he wriggled away, the girl approached him again. She had a knife in her hand. Kai flinched.

"Upgraded from nails, I see?"

"I'm sorry," she said, and Kai was surprised that she actually did sound sorry. Was it a trick of the mind? "I need to remove your ID chip and the Glamour Blocker, just in case. I can't have anyone track you here before we're done."

Well, at least he hadn't given away the information about the tracker in his neck. They could still get her. She also had no idea that the MiB tracked glamour wattage readings. The thought made him smug. With power like hers, the grids must be lighting up like a fire. _This Lunar was going down_.

She held out the knife with a shaky hand. "Do you want me to do this with Glamour or without?"

He sneered. "If you think I'm gonna let you touch me without a fight, you've got another thing coming."

She sighed. "Fine. Have it your way. In fact, you can just do it yourself."


	5. Chapter 5

It was a good thing she had actually forced her glamour on him, though he'd never admit it to her. The Lunar cyborg had let him decide exactly how to cut out the ID chip from his wrist and simultaneously calmed his nerves. Whereas Kai was normally not the happiest around blood, to say the least, he did not feel a twinge of worry about his ability to successfully extract the little piece of plastic until she removed the glamour from him—which had been immediately afterward.

She now sat cross-legged in front of him on the floor, her haughty glare from the rooftop practically a memory. If he didn't know any better, he'd say she looked remorseful. Guilty. Conflicted.

Her wide eyes studied him as she fiddled with part of her cyborg hand. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Fine," he grumbled.

"Good." Kai could actually see the relief flood her features. She stood up quickly and wiped invisible dust off of her pants. A nervous tick?

"I've done it a few times but"—her lips quirked into a smile—"you seem a little...delicate."

"I beg your pardon! I am _not_ delicate," said Kai vehemently, offended. I am an agent of the MiB, as your brainwashing already told you. We go through extremely rigorous testing. Torture, even."

She walked back to the bench in the corner of the room and ran a hand through her hair. "Yeah well, your mental state was agitated."

"Excuse me if being kidnapped is not exactly the most calming thing I've ever experienced."

She smiled. There it was—the reckless, borderline evil grin that he recognized more so than her calm nature. "I'll bet."

"What exactly is the point of all this?" asked Kai.

She took a wrench off the bench and twirled it in her hand, once, twice, then three times. "I need you to stop looking for me. Stop this little crusade you've got going against me."

"Or what? You'll beat me with that wrench? Or have me do it to myself?"

The girl dropped the wrench suddenly and loudly on the floor, barely missing her foot. She stooped to pick it up and inspected the wrench closely, before walking over to Kai. He eyed the wrench warily.

The girl leaned in, her bangs falling over her face. She blew them out of her eyes as she got even closer to Kai. "That's what you want me to do, right?" she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "Because that's what Lunars do, isn't it? We're just selfish and hurt Earthens the first chance we get."

Kai swallowed. "It doesn't have to be this way."

"But if I do that, you win in your ignorance of our culture, don't you? You can prove to everyone that we're all just the scum of this planet and deserve to be locked up." She shook the wrench at him. "What would an MiB agent know of my life outside of my identity as a Lunar?"

"I know you steal from people and you use Glamour illegally," he said firmly. "And you're still under arrest," he added.

She sighed, but didn't back away. "You wouldn't have any idea that I'm rather good with a wrench—but not in the way you're thinking. I'm good at fixing things. I've managed to earn enough to survive in this cruel city you call home." Kai studied her, unblinking. This close, he could see every freckle, every crease of her eyes, all the lines on her face that spoke of past worries. She held up her human wrist, the familiar moon tattoo and a 5-digit number etched over it. "Thanks to the Lunar Registration, though," she hissed, "I can hardly get any business. Thanks to the Lunar Registration, my _sister_—"

Light and glass flooded the cramped workspace as Wolf entered the room feet first, shattering the window pane. Kai laughed victoriously when Wolf landed in a crouch on the ground, tranquilizer gun in one hand, a real gun in the other. The Lunar cyborg had practically frozen in front of Kai, her wrench still raised.

"Busted," said Kai.

"I didn't hurt him!" said the girl, frantic. But then she blinked and chucked her wrench at Wolf, running for the door. Wolf released several shots from his tranq gun. The girl went down just as Thorne swung through the window as well—practically knocking Wolf over in the process.

"'Bout time," said Kai, once again struggling against his binds.

Wolf grimaced as he pushed Thorne off of him. "You and your late night encounters with Lunars," he muttered to Kai.

Thorne grinned though. "Pretty cool entrance if I do say so myself." He stood and nodded with his typical swagger, surveying the scene as if he alone had single-handedly defeated an entire Lunar army. Typical.

"What did she want?" asked Wolf, moving to untie Kai. Thorne sauntered over to the girl and nudged her leg with his foot. She was out cold.

"I don't know," said Kai. "She wanted more information about me. About all of us."

"Well, we'll question her good," said Thorne, glee spreading over him at the thought.

"She still counts as my target," said Kai, rubbing his hand over the sore wrist.

Wolf growled. "Both of ours."

"Man, she is _heavy,_" said Thorne. Kai and Wolf both glared at him when they saw he was carrying the Lunar girl in his arms bridal style. "What?" he asked. Then: "Fine." He grunted as he slung the girl over his shoulder instead. "I maintain that she's really heavy."

As Thorne began to walk towards the doorway, Kai saw the girl's limp body hang behind Thorne. With the new light and all her pretense gone, her face looked almost peaceful. Her brown bangs hung in front of her eyes, and Kai almost had the urge to brush them away. Then he remembered who he was dealing with. The same person who his team had just helped him escape from. His target.

"I could use some food," he said to Wolf, who was snapping some pictures of the place with his portscreen.

"You mean your host didn't offer you anything?" asked Wolf, a sly grin finally showing up on his ever-serious face. "How rude."

Kai laughed. It felt good after being serious for so long. "Jacin still with Winter?" he asked.

"Of course," said Thorne from the doorway. "Now let's go before my arm goes numb."

"Speaking of arms," said Kai, "I'm going to need another Glamour Blocker."

* * *

"Not so tough anymore are you?" asked Kai, looking through the bars. The Lunar cyborg sat crouched on the floor of one of the MiB holding cells, her knees tucked into her chest. She was shaking all over, and Kai was beginning to think that maybe all of this wasn't so necessary. As much as he'd thought that he'd enjoy seeing her locked up after what she'd done to him, the whole situation didn't sit right with him. Now she just looked like a cold, frightened, lonely girl, not a criminal at all.

It had only taken one day of Dr. Erland working on her for her to break. She'd admitted almost everything: her name (Cinder), her occupation (mechanic), her former Lunar ID tracker (which was now implanted in an unsuspecting Earthen). She gave up where she lived, when she'd arrived on Earth, how and why she'd gotten her cybernetic operation, and how she was currently a fugitive. Her tattoo confirmed everything she said was accurate with their database. It was precisely for situations like this that Dr. Erland had suggested they mark Lunars with ink instead of just removable chips. She was young when she had arrived, so she hadn't known that the people regulating her were actually the MiB, nor had she heard of them until she'd had her run in with Kai. She certainly hadn't heard of Glamour Meters or wattage grids.

The only thing she hadn't given up was why she had used her glamour illegally in the first place. Dr. Erland had done practically everything that he could without being completely unethical—which, to Kai, was already too much in the gray area, but she had insisted that she'd only talk to Kai. So there he was, several weeks of pursuit bordering on obsession, and he finally had his target in front of him. But now that he had her, he didn't know what to do with her.

Cinder.

"You only want to talk to me, so talk," he said, running his knuckles over the bars that held her back. At least now he knew that whatever she said wouldn't be muddled by her manipulation. The walls of these cells were covered with the strongest Glamour Blockers the MiB technology had ever produced. That was why they didn't even bother with guards anymore.

"Please," she said. "My sister..." She looked like she was going to cry but couldn't. It wasn't the best look on her, and he wasn't sure if it was just her faking agony, though she did look plenty miserable already. "My sister Peony. You have to help her."

"Why should I care about your sister?" said Kai.

"When I was in your mind—" She grimaced and reconsidered. "When I glamoured you, I got a sense of how your brain works. You're not evil, Kai. There were many strings of bioelectricity that hummed out in compassion, despite your anger, if that makes sense."

Kai scoffed. "It's none of your business whether I'm compassionate or not. You were wrong to glamour me and that's all there is to it." He vaguely remembered arguing with Thorne in the MiB cafeteria about this very point. Everyone had a motive for something. It shouldn't excuse her, though. Not in the least.

Cinder slammed her head against the wall, but surprisingly didn't flinch. "I'm sorry that I had to do that. Really, I am."

"Sorry because you got caught."

"_Please_, Kai. You—you wouldn't leave me in peace. You wouldn't respond to my questions without glamour, so I had to glamour you to get you to at least confess why you were hunting me down. I didn't realize you had your dumb wattage grids to track me."

"You're not supposed to," he said, still playing with the bars.

"That's cheating," she said quietly.

"As if brainwashing isn't?"

"I said I was sorry, okay? It was necessary. I don't care what you do to me here. Just help my sister. She has no one. She's expecting me to show up."

"Cinder," said Kai. "Focus." He squeezed his fists around the bars in frustration. "Why did you use your glamour illegally and then also steal?"

"I wasn't there to steal the food. I was there to get him in trouble—to get him fired. He bullies Lunars and I couldn't take it anymore."

"Earthens don't know that Lunars even exist."

"They know _something _is going on. There are a lot of conspiracy theories. And they're all connected to our moon tattoos. Even if they're not afraid of us, many people mark us as freaks of society as soon as they recognize the mark. And they target us. They did—they did terrible things to my little sister." She covered her face with her hands. "I wasn't there to stop it."

"Why didn't you go to someone in a position of authority, then?" asked Kai.

"We did. They saw our tattoos and our poverty and laughed at us—said that we were in that weird moon gang that everyone whispers about. So I took matters into my own hands." She looked at Kai and shook her head, which was barely a change from the way she was already rocking due to the cold. "I just wanted him to get fired. Whenever I stole things, I would also buy something. But I'd glamour him into thinking I'd bought more than I actually did. That way, eventually he'd get caught for losing items in the store and coming short in the register every evening. He'd lose his livelihood, lose his good reputation. Maybe then he could see what it feels like to be marginalized."

Kai exhaled, thinking. "You could just be making this up."

She nodded. "I know you have no reason to believe me. I did everything wrong. I thought that if I talked to you, though, you might see my point of view."

"Well, I don't."

Kai stalked out of the holding cell area, leaving Cinder calling out behind him.

* * *

He didn't tell anyone about their conversation. He decided to do some investigative work first—perhaps without getting kidnapped this time—so he disguised himself as he went snooping for answers. Instead of his usual pristine suit, he wore an old, ratty hoodie. It was gray and drab and matched well with a pair of jeans that were covered in holes. He mussed up his hair so it looked like it hadn't been washed. Then he went out on the streets of New Beijing, to the poorer areas, asking around about the so-called _moon gang_.

Many had heard of it. They were eager to talk to Kai and even offer him some scraps of food when he told them a sob story about his misfortune with being fired and having lost his income and subsequently, his family. Some marveled at how young he was to have a family already, and he told them that love didn't have an age. He felt sappy and ridiculous, but they ate it up. Patted him on the back.

And they talked about the moon gang. They told him about how many of them were poor and lived in these parts of the cities, but that there were leaders who were known to be cruel and ruthless. They were often in fights. But it was the poor members of the gang who often paid the price later, because they had nowhere to escape to later, unlike the wealthy leaders. Some of the people in the city even liked to pick on the children.

Kai explained how he'd met a pretty girl who was part of the gang, and how she had a cyborg hand, and that he desperately wanted to track her down so he could help her sister. It took him several hours to gain enough of a rapport with them before they finally trusted him enough to tell him about Peony. She was apparently well known and loved by many.

It was a brutal story, one that made Kai recoil and marvel in disgust at how terrible humans could be, not just Lunars. He'd never imagined that people in his city were purposely persecuting Lunars. How could he have known? He was part of the invisible organization that kept Lunars in check, not fought for their rights. But Rikan and Torin must have known that this was going on. Where they keeping it purposely from the agents? Or did they really not know the true reach of cruelty in their own city?

He also made a mental note to find the 'moon gang leaders' and make sure that they didn't pick fights anymore._ That_ was definitely part of his job description, if not anything else. After Kai had feigned sleep in an abandoned warehouse with the others, he slipped out, leaving his fake identity with him. He was disgusted by what he'd learned, and even more repulsed by his ignorance.

Maybe Cinder really _had_ just been trying to protect her sister, and Kai had interfered. Maybe she had just panicked when she'd discovered him about to uncover her identity.

* * *

"Pretend you're glamouring me."

"What?" Cinder, exhausted and weak from another day with Dr. Erland, looked up feebly from the same spot in the corner. She'd only been in the MiB headquarters for four days, but it had sucked the life out of her eyes.

"Quick, I'm getting you out of here," he whispered. "Make it look like you're glamouring me."

She groaned. "I can barely move, Kai. I can't handle your jokes right now."

"I'm not joking."

Her eyes widened. She sprang to her feet, catching herself on the wall when she nearly stumbled over. Her breathing became labored.

"What did they do to you?" Kai asked.

She clutched her stomach, then straightened. "Erland didn't tell you I have a cyborg foot too, did he?" Kai shook his head. "He probably also didn't tell you that he enjoys removing and attaching different types of cyborg feet…just to see if they're compatible?"

"Now _you're_ joking." Cybernetic operations didn't have anything to do with Lunars and their powers. He winced at the thought of Cinder at the mercy of his experiments. But this specific experiment—or whatever Dr. Erland would call it—was not supposed to be part of this prisoner's sentence. He would have to speak to his bosses about him eventually. They had to know.

"The issue is not me looking like I'm glamouring you," she said, coming closer to him. "It's you faking it. Besides, there are too many of your blocking devices in here. They'll know you helped me. There will be no wattage readings because I simply can't access bioelectricity right now."

"You have to," said Kai. "I've got Peony." Cinder looked horrified. "She's safe," he added quickly. "She's waiting for you." He explained his escape route to her, how the podship was waiting for her, how the coordinates were already programmed to lead her straight to her little sister.

Cinder approached him. "Now that they know what I look like, they'll be able to find me."

"That's why you can't stay in the city," said Kai quietly. "I've prepared everything. But we only have a small window to make this happen. I was counting on being pretend-glamoured."

"Maybe there's another way…" Cinder murmured. Then she nodded enthusiastically. "Are you sure you want to help me? _Really_ sure?"

"Yes," said Kai. "But I'm not willing to get caught for it."

"Good," she said. "Because this may hurt just a bit."

"I—what?"

"Turn around as if you're going to leave," she commanded.

The second he turned around her cyborg hand shot out between the bars and pulled him back with extreme force. His back slammed into the metal bars, and soon she had him in a chokehold. "Give me the code to the cell," she growled. Kai pretended to struggle but she held him tighter. Her breath was hot on his neck. A compartment on her finger opened and a knife protruded from the middle finger. "Now."

"How did Dr. Erland not catch that?" he grunted, still pretending to fight against her.

She laughed wickedly in his ear and traced the knife up his Adam's apple. "He spent too much time on his foot fetish," she spat. "The code. _Now_ or I slice your throat."

He gave her the code.

"Now pretend to pass out," she said. She squeezed his neck hard and he made his face turn bright red, though he was a little scared by how good she was at all of this. Terrified, in fact.

He collapsed to the ground. He heard the cell bars whoosh open, and suddenly he was being dragged across the floor by his foot. Luckily, the tunnel he'd chosen remained deserted. He was glad that they weren't carpeted tunnels, because Kai knew he would be full of rug burns the way she was dragging him. "Could you do that a little more gently?" he hissed between his teeth.

He didn't hear her apologize, but her pace slowed slightly.

After several minutes of keeping his eyes shut, he whispered, "leave me here."

His leg fell from her grasp. He did his best not to grimace. He heard footsteps; she was circling him. She nudged him with her foot. Kai didn't move.

Then she was running.

* * *

Several months later, Kai received an anonymous postcard from Europe. All it said was:

_You're pretty great. For an Earthen. xx_

* * *

**Author's Note:** Well then! I hope you enjoyed Agent K's story. As you may remember me mentioning in the beginning, this is going to be more of a collection of short stories from the different POVs of our favorite TLC main men. This one got a little longer than I expected, but I was having too much fun pitting Cinder and Kai against each other. :)


	6. Chapter 6

**Agent T**

She was only a few feet ahead of him. Short, wavy hair billowed behind her as she raced into a crowd of people in an attempt to lose her pursuer. She dodged and ducked, but Thorne trailed her easily, choosing instead to plow through the crowds and force them aside.

This Lunar was not going to escape him.

When she reached an alley, Thorne halted only a beat before he changed directions, choosing a larger road instead. The GPS he'd pulled up on his sunglasses informed him of the upcoming intersection with her alley in just two blocks.

He pushed forward, hoping that she would keep running and not try to hide away in one of the buildings on the way. This one really liked to hide and she was good at it.

But he had coaxed her out from hiding before.

This time would be no different.

Sprinting now, he tore off the suit jacket he'd worn to work this morning. He knew he looked sleek in it, but the sleeves were restricting his movement. Arms free, he urged his legs to move even faster and took a sharp right turn. Ducking into a small side alcove, he waited, panting.

He had just caught his breath when he heard feet pounding against the pavement. She hadn't decided to hide after all. He double-checked his wattage meter for a bioelectricity read to be sure, and then jumped out from his hiding spot to snatch her.

She collided into him with a startled cry, but his arms were ready for the impact. Her small frame was no match for his tall, muscular body and she knew it. She struggled regardless, but he easily pulled her into the alcove with him and then pushed her against the wall.

He smirked.

Her blue eyes blazed. Then they dipped to his mouth before she looked up at him again, a different kind of heat bubbling in her eyes.

Their lips crashed together, the adrenaline of the chase spilling over into the kiss. They fought with each other, each daring the other to break the connection first while still holding on as tight as possible. He nipped at her lip, eliciting a small moan from her before she latched her hands onto the collar of his shirt, finding his tie, and pulled him even tighter. He gripped her waist, helping her close the distance, and peppered her neck with short, hot kisses. She moaned again and he finally detached himself to look at her flushed cheeks.

"Sounds like someone missed me."

She smiled, shy all of a sudden, though her breaths took a moment to even out. She played with the tie she was still using to hold him close. "I didn't realize it was you."

"Aw, babe, you think I'd let anyone else chase you?"

She shrugged. "You haven't been out to see me in a while. I thought maybe you found some other Lunar girl to track down."

He laughed and tightened his grip on her waist. She was so adorable when she was jealous. "You know there's no other Lunar girl for me."

"An Earthen, then?"

He ran his fingers through her hair, smoothing it out from the run and brief make-out session. "You know I'm just busy with work. The guys are always around. I can't have them knowing I'm seeing someone."

She dropped her hands from the tie. "You mean, a Lunar."

He tried to cup her face but she batted him away. He wasted no time putting on the charming smile he knew she loved. "C'mon babe, don't be like that. I've got another hour before anyone gets suspicious."

When she didn't smile back at him like he had expected, he frowned and took off his sunglasses. "Look at me, Cress." He lowered his head until he was eye-level and she had no choice but to look up. She blushed at his intense stare, which made him want to smirk again, but he held it back. "I'll try to make more time."

She snorted, her pretty blue eyes rolling back into her head. "Sure, you'll _try_."

He sighed. "You're still mad at me."

"You're _embarrassed_ of me."

"Cress." He reached for her face again, and this time she didn't pull away. "You're not even supposed to know I'm an agent. How would it look if someone found out about us? Besides, isn't it fun to sneak around? You can't tell me that the chase doesn't excite you."

"I like the catch better."

He traced her lower lip with his thumb. "How about I come visit you tonight? No chasing. Just me and you."

Her expression changed to hopeful. "You—you think you could get away?"

Thorne didn't bother hiding his smirk this time. "Wouldn't be the first time. Everyone knows how much I love to sleep." He winked at her, hoping she'd blush again. "I'm sure I could manage a late night rendezvous without being detected. Keep your window open."

"An agent of the MiB can't get through a locked window?"

"If a neighbor alerts the authorities about a guy smashing through a pretty girl's window, our night will likely end early. I'll be there around 1:00 A.M., okay?"

"You think I'm pretty?"

He chuckled at her unsubtle attempt to fish for a compliment. He was more than happy to offer one up anyway. "You know I do. Prettiest girl I know."

"In that case…" Her fingers found her way back to his tie again. She fiddled with it before sliding her palms against his chest. "Kiss me."

His mouth was on hers before she could even finish the command, his strong arms enveloping her in another tight embrace.

* * *

Thorne tried to fasten the tie better on his neck as he descended down the elevator into MiB headquarters. Something looked off in the mirror but he couldn't quite place it. His shirt was tucked in, his hair was combed back, and he'd remembered to pick up the suit jacket he'd discarded while chasing Cress. The tie was giving him some trouble, though, which was odd, considering that he made it the same way every morning.

Nainsi was waiting for him when the elevator opened. "Agent T," said the android, "welcome back to base. You are seven minutes late for your scheduled meeting."

"I know, Nainsi."

"Your team is waiting for you in Room AR-5. Rikan and Torin will be arriving shortly."

"I got the comm," he replied, but he took off sprinting before she could finish dolling out instructions. He wasn't _that _late, but he definitely wanted to arrive before Rikan and Torin did.

He paused in front of AR-5 and straightened his tie again before opening the door. Kai, Wolf, and Jacin gave him the nod when he walked in.

"Finally," said Wolf. "We were beginning to wonder if you'd been kidnapped."

"Tough catch?" asked Kai.

"Nah," said Thorne, sliding into the empty chair next to Jacin. "False alarm. The signal I was getting turned out to be just the residual glamour that emanates off her registration chip and blocker."

"You check it anyway?" asked Jacin, frowning despite Thorne's carefree attitude.

"Of course. Scanned her ID. Everything's working as it should. Wattage grids were normal and no disruption to my GB either."

"Good," said Wolf. "We should probably start looking into that anyway. See if there's any way to block their signals completely so we don't get all these false readings."

Thorne shrugged. "It's a great way to know there's a Lunar in our presence. Without it, we'd be blind to them unless they're already breaking the law."

"If they're not breaking the law, it's a bit like tagging cattle," said Kai. "Always singling them out and doing random inspections without cause."

"The point is," said Thorne, "we're safer if we know."

"They're not all bad, Thorne," said Kai. "Just because you hate Lunars on principle doesn't mean—"

"Cut it out, you two," said Jacin, annoyed. He was always annoyed, according to Thorne. But he had long since accepted that he would probably be annoyed on principle too if the love of his life had been tortured into insanity by a power-hungry Lunar who was still at large.

Thorne held up his hands in surrender and smiled. "I was just doing my job. Bring it up with Rikan and Torin if you have a problem with the current system."

Kai's back stiffened for an instant, but then he relaxed into his chair, a mischievous glint coming into his eyes instead. "Just doing your job, huh? Is that why there's lipstick on your collar?"

Thorne cursed silently. Lipstick on his collar. How had he not noticed that _that_ was what was off about his appearance? He was usually more careful. Still, outwardly he just made a cocky face. "Ran into an ex on the way back here. She couldn't keep her hands off me, and let's just say…I didn't mind being sidetracked."

The guys all rolled their eyes, though he knew Kai was trying to suppress a smile.

"You should still try to make it less obvious before they get here," said Wolf, pulling out his portscreen. "Which, according to Nainsi, will be in ten seconds."

Thorne tried to find the offending mark with his eyes, but his collar was too tight and he knew he was giving himself an unattractive double chin with the way he was craning his neck back. Knowing it would be no use, he gave up. So what if Rikan and Torin noticed? They weren't likely to say anything. Besides, it wasn't against MiB rules to kiss a girl.

Well, he supposed it depended on what _kind _of girl.

What species, to be exact.

Shrugging off his guilt because it wasn't something he dealt in, he sat up straight in his chair as Rikan and Torin marched in.

Torin went immediately to the massive invisiscreen on the wall. He began typing in his verification codes. "Agents," he said, "we've got another big fish to catch." He pulled up a picture of a woman with deadly grey eyes and raven black hair pulled into a bun. A smug smile graced her flawless face.

Thorne narrowed his eyes.

"Sybil Mira is back in town," said Rikan, coming to stand on the other side of the invisiscreen. "MiB in the African Union tipped us off. She escaped their borders on a podship at 0400 hours local time. We found a deserted podship with the same tracking ID just thirty minutes ago at this location."

Torin changed the screen to an apartment complex called _Phoenix Towers_. The GPS locator showed that it wasn't too far from MiB headquarters—only a half a kilometer.

"A threat?" hissed Wolf, drawing his shoulders up tensely.

"Or a show of force," said Jacin. "We almost got her last time. Killed a dozen of her men, remember?"

"How could we forget," said Kai dryly.

Kai had spent an entire week in the hospital recovering from their encounters with Sybil and her cronies. The others had fared slightly better: Thorne had gotten off with a broken arm, Wolf with some bruises, and Jacin with a concussion. She wasn't their toughest target to date, but she was certainly a force to be reckoned with.

"She massacred an entire block of Earthens last time," said Torin anyway, as if someone really had forgotten. "It looks like she's continued in her ways in the African Union, leaving destruction wherever she goes." More pictures with more death popped up on the invisiscreen. "This time, intel suggests she may be in the Eastern Commonwealth in search of the Amplifier."

Thorne groaned loudly, making everyone turn to look at him. "What? I told you keeping that thing here was a bad idea."

The Glamour Amplifier was a coveted treasure for Lunars who were against the restrictions of MiB regulation of Lunars on Earth. Considered the Holy Grail of glamour, it could take anyone's gift and make it hundreds of times stronger. Anyone with that kind of power could destroy more than just a block—it could make all of New Beijing City bow under the owner's control.

And it was being kept safe at their base, of course.

"Do you have another suggestion for a more secure location, Agent T?" asked Rikan sharply. When Thorne lowered his eyes, he added: "Know your place."

Torin cleared his throat. "Moving on. We'll transfer all the intel we've received to your ports. We expect the four of you to handle this swiftly and efficiently. Your mission is to catch her and bring her to justice. Do whatever's necessary. We can't risk her escaping again."

They dismissed them, leaving the four agents alone in room AR-5 to make plans. Wolf pulled up a new screen to begin a list of supplies. Extra Glamour Blockers and weapons were the first to get written down. Then, the strategies began pouring out of them.

How to draw her out.

Figure out her motives.

Locate her allies.

Bait her.

After several hours, Thorne glanced down at the clock on his portscreen. He tried to hide his frown. With Sybil Mira at large, it didn't look like he was going to make his late night rendezvous after all.

* * *

At three thirty in the morning, he found that Cress had locked her window. Unwilling to pound on the glass on the off-chance that she would wake up and chuck something at him in anger, he broke into the apartment complex instead. When he reached her door, he fished under the welcome mat and found a key. Sighing, he opened the door and got ready to tell Cress that it was about time she upgraded to an electronic identification security system.

He also braced himself for the wrath that was coming his way for standing her up. A million different excuses clamored their way into Thorne's arsenal of smooth words, each one coupled with ways to make it up to her.

But Cress was sleeping soundly, unaware that she was no longer the only person in her bedroom. He climbed in next to her quietly, sliding an arm around her waist. Though she didn't wake, she cuddled instinctively against him nonetheless.

Thorne set his port to vibrate at 4:30 A.M, knowing that he had a big day ahead of him and couldn't afford to stay out any later. He kissed the back of her hair, then let his head fall against the pillow. Within minutes, his breathing evened out to match that of the pretty Lunar girl.

* * *

**Note: **And...it's back! Hope you enjoyed the first installment of Thorne's MiB story. Leave me a review and let me know what you thought!


	7. Chapter 7

Though he loved all types of spaceships and flying machines, Thorne had never been much for piloting until he had discovered the underground—or, to be more accurate, _aboveground_—racing scene. Never one to say no to a bet, his descent into gambling on the outcomes of podship racing had been swift and potent. It had only halted once he had realized that people could bet on _him_ if he honed his flying skills. If he was the racer, he didn't have to be dependent on anyone else for the outcome.

Just as he preferred.

The adrenaline of it all—not to mention the winnings—had propelled him into a type of dedication to learning that Thorne had never known he'd possessed.

And now, as he flew in the middle of the troposphere, he thanked his lucky stars for his greedy nature and need for a rush. The ability to participate in podship _chases_ had been of the deciding factors for Thorne in becoming an agent for the MiB.

He didn't just get to race anymore, he got to shoot at the other ships too.

And he was shooting, all right.

"Watch him!" yelled Kai, as their target took a nosedive towards Earth after barely missing one of Thorne's missiles.

"I'm on him!" Thorne yelled back, plunging their own ship into an eighty-five degree arc.

They both hit the harness with full force and Kai gasped for air, but Thorne had been ready for it. He had learned many years ago from racing that these types of dives should always be anticipated. Kai, on the other hand, had never quite gotten used to them—or Thorne's flying. He tended to wuss out whenever they were heavy into the chase.

"We are going to die, we are going to die, WE ARE GOING TO DIE!" he screamed, but Thorne ignored him and only forced the engines to accelerate more.

Aimery Park, Sybil Mira's right-hand man and the Lunar commanding the podship they were chasing, took an abrupt turn to the right. Even Thorne almost vomited as he was forced to yank back on the controllers in order to avoid hitting the tail-end of the ship.

"Get him closer to Earth!" Kai said, and Thorne saw that he was as white as a ghost.

Thorne didn't need the reminder. They had been chasing Aimery for almost an hour, and at the rate they were flying they would run out of fuel relatively soon. Nainsi had pulled up the schematics of the ship Aimery had stolen and it had much more staying power—_if_ it had been recently refueled. There was no way of knowing.

"Jacin," he said into his mouthpiece. "Kai's sending you my coordinates. Aimery loves to dance but frankly I'm bored of his company. Want to cut in?"

There was brief static before he heard Jacin snicker in his ear. "It would be my pleasure. Send them over."

Kai was already typing into his portscreen and still looking like he would pass out any minute, but he held it together long enough to get the coordinates over to Jacin.

Wolf's voice came through his earpiece. "We're ahead of you about four klicks away. Get him to go southwest and we can cut him off."

Thorne gritted his teeth and pulled on the controllers again. He had lost precious time recovering from Aimery's turn. But he would not be left in the dust. Not when they were so close to catching him.

"Keep your shit together," said Thorne to Kai, before hitting the thrusters one last time. It was not exactly a MiB-approved move whilst flying, but it would help them catch up. They were thrown back by the force but sure enough, Thorne's control system locked in on Aimery's podship again. "Got you," he said, almost laughing, and released another missile.

He swore when it missed the podship by a hair.

Then Jacin's ship descended upon them, effectively forcing Aimery to double back. He took another shot and it clipped the side. Thorne whooped and did a quick loop de loop in the air, conveniently ignoring Kai's cries of protest beside him. Aimery would not be able to keep flying if he valued his life at all.

And if he didn't—what did Thorne care?

When they were level again, they watched Aimery begin his descent with Jacin's podship nearly kissing his tail. Thorne followed closely behind anyway, laughing victoriously and counting this chase as a win in his legacy of races.

"I hate you," said Kai.

* * *

Guns drawn, the four agents approached the podship. They had been on the ground for over two minutes, but no one had yet to exit. Aimery had lost some control of the podship during the descent, perhaps due to the damage on the exterior, and Thorne was beginning to wonder if he was injured or just in denial that the chase was over. He hadn't exactly crash-landed, but it hadn't been pretty—a few tumbles here and there and a final bang into the side of a large hill in Japan Province.

Wolf went first, as his instincts were always on point when they were in these types of situations. He paused in front of the hatch to the door. "My glasses are giving me an 11.9 reading. I think the metal exterior is keeping some of it in, though. Can I get a few extra Glamour Blockers?"

Jacin reached in his pocket and tossed him the kind they used in their holding cells—the ones with the sticky suctioning piece. Wolf stuck two on the hatch. Then, frowning, he threw another one onto the other side of the podship.

They all knew better than to trust a Lunar, let alone a Lunar who worked with Sybil Mira.

Then again, though he'd never admit it, there was one Lunar that he trusted.

Sort of.

The thought reminded him of how exhausted he was from sneaking into Cress's apartment the night before. Not that he could say anything—the rest of his team would never let him fly if they knew he was running off a one-hour power nap and about a bucket of coffee.

Not to mention they would probably kick him off their team and out of MiB if they knew he was dating a Lunar.

Sort of.

Were they dating?

It had been a while since he'd bothered to flirt with other girls, at least intentionally. Cress didn't believe him, but he really_ was_ busy with work most of the time. Since he'd met her two months ago, missions had taken over his life more than usual, which wasn't exactly okay with him.

There was work and there was play. Thorne needed more time to play.

He snapped back to attention when Wolf and Jacin forced the podship hatch open. Kai was half-watching the door and half-glaring at Thorne, as if saying, _what are you just standing there for_?

Thorne rushed forward, gun still at the ready, and the four of them pointed their weapons inside.

"Aimery Park, you are under arrest for illegal use of glamour, property theft, evading authorities, and attempted murder," sneered Jacin.

"And that's just what you've done in the last day," added Thorne.

Aimery smiled up at them as if they had just announced a birthday party in his honor. To Thorne's dismay, he was not injured at all. Rather, he was smug. "Nice to see you too, boys."

The arrow on Thorne's Glamour Meter ticked upward a notch; he was trying to control them. The fact that he couldn't made Thorne want to return the smug look. It had almost been too easy.

Wolf secured the handcuffs that were equipped with even more Glamour Blockers, but Aimery was completely unperturbed by the fact that he was being arrested.

Wait…

"It's too easy," said Thorne, backing out of the podship. He circled around it, pressing himself flat against its exterior to slide around it. Was there someone hiding on the other side? Had Aimery had a second person in the podship? Perhaps glamoured the original owner?

But Thorne circled the whole ship and found no one, only more of Aimery's smugness.

"Find anything?" he said.

Wolf yanked on his cuffs, making Aimery wince and lose his grin for just a split second. They marched him out of the podship and the second they came to a halt Jacin pressed his gun against Aimery's temple. "No funny business. What are you hiding, Lunar?"

He shrugged, completely unfazed by Jacin's gun. "What's to hide? You got me, boys. Boo-hoo."

His grin turned wicked and then the world around them exploded.

* * *

The first thing Thorne noticed was the persistent _eeeeeeeeeee _in his left ear. Like a dull but high-pitched note played at continuum, it muted every other sound around him. His limbs were heavy, as if he'd been drugged, and he wondered briefly if he had fallen asleep on the job and the guys were trying to wake him up with a fog horn. But when he forced his eyes open, he saw red stars dance in his vision. He blinked furiously, trying to shake them away, but his peripheral vision was still skewed.

He saw dirt and dust and smoke in front of him. Why was he on the ground? Why was it raining ash?

Then he remembered.

Aimery.

The bomb.

Thorne tried to move but his legs were pinned to the ground. He tilted his head and groaned. They were pinned to the ground because Wolf had fallen on top of him.

"Get off me," said Thorne, but he could barely hear himself over the noise in his ear. The force of Aimery's podship exploding had to have done a number on his eardrums. He hoped it would subside soon enough.

Wolf grunted something back but managed to roll off him, and Thorne attempted to get up. He was unsuccessful twice, failing to gain purchase until he righted himself.

Jacin was sitting up, looking like a mad man. His hair had come undone, half of it black from ash, the other half still blonde. His face was covered in soot and one sleeve looked like it had been burned off. With that same arm he pointed the gun at Aimery, who was sprawled out in front of him, pinned down by Jacin's boots—which were conveniently using Aimery's neck as a footrest.

Kai wasn't moving.

"I called for backup while you three were snoozing," said Jacin. "Who knows if someone is tracking us and has planted something in our podships as well."

Thorne pulled at his collar to make more room to breathe. "How would they have done that?"

"Who knows? But on the off-chance that this was planned and Aimery isn't just trying to commit suicide, I'd say I'd rather not take the risk." He glanced over his shoulder. "You all right, Wolf?"

Wolf grunted again and Thorne turned his head to the right so he could hear him better. A small wave of panic told him that maybe he was deaf on the left side now. He shook the worry away and trotted over to help Wolf examine Kai. When they determined that he was breathing, Thorne sat back down on the ground.

He needed a bath and an appointment at the MiB med clinic.

* * *

The ringing in his left ear had subsided by the time he made it back to his apartment. The doctors had said it shouldn't be permanent and it was comforting to know that their diagnosis seemed to be accurate. The minor scrapes and bruises on his face would fade within a few days.

Aimery was behind bars and under 24/7 guard at MiB headquarters. Kai had suffered a concussion but had been adamant about being fine. Despite his protests, the doctors were keeping him overnight for observation.

Since he had already washed and cleaned up on base, the only things Thorne needed now were his pillow and his mattress. He was pushing forty hours without any real sleep. But his zombie-like state temporarily retreated when he arrived home and saw Cress sleeping on the stoop of his apartment.

He shook her awake.

"What are you doing here?" he hissed. "Someone could see you!"

She yawned and rubbed her eyes. "A girl could die waiting for you."

"You shouldn't be here."

"I just wanted to see you." She yawned again. "Didn't think you'd be home so late."

"You shouldn't be here," he repeated, trying to get her to understand the urgency of the matter.

She gave him a look. "Because…? Oh. _Right_. A woman sitting on the steps of an apartment immediately signifies that you're an agent. How silly of me."

Thorne pulled her to her feet, wondering if it was anger or sleep that was suddenly making her so sarcastic. He hesitated only briefly before he took her hand and began walking her away from his apartment. She squeezed his hand, but he didn't return the gesture.

She sighed loudly. "Where are you taking me?"

"Home."

"I'm perfectly capable of walking myself home."

He chewed on his lip and kept walking. "I don't want you walking by yourself at night, got it?"

Cress stopped walking. Reluctantly, he stopped too. Her eyes widened. "What happened to your face?"

She reached for him but he flinched back. "Don't. It's been a really long day."

"You need to get that cut looked at."

"Already did. Now please, Cress, we have to move. We're too exposed here."

She looked around them at the empty street, then back up at Thorne. "What happened today?"

"Walk," he said, then he tugged on her hand and she thankfully followed him. "You know I can't talk about work, Cress."

"So something bad happened. That's why your face is cut."

He wanted to make his own sarcastic comment about her _keen _observation skills, but he had learned the hard way that Cress was pretty sensitive and didn't respond to that sort of thing. Besides, it was kind of endearing that someone cared about his welfare.

"I don't want you out by yourself right now. It's for your own good."

Cress laughed at him, which was the last thing he had expected. He frowned at her and she squeezed his hand again. "Lunars wouldn't hurt their own kind, Thorne. I'm totally fine."

"Cress…"

"It's you we have to worry about."

"No, this one, she's—I mean, in _theory_, if it were a she…" Cress peered up at him conspiratorially. She wasn't taking him seriously at all. He stopped and took her face in his hands. She closed her eyes and leaned into his touch, but he forced her to look at him. "There's a bad Lunar visiting town right now. Super dangerous. Dozens of people died the last time she—I mean—oh stars. Fine, it's a woman. She's pure evil. She doesn't care who gets in her way."

Cress furrowed her brow in thought. "But you deal with these types of criminals all the time."

"She's worse. Trust me."

"I do."

"Okay, then it's settled."

They walked in silence for another fifteen minutes until Thorne decided to call them a hover taxi. He blamed the day's events for not having thought of it sooner. This way, he could still ensure that Cress got home safely, and he wouldn't be stuck walking anymore. His pillow and mattress sang to him from afar, reminding him that they were waiting for him.

"I can help," said Cress while they were waiting for the taxi to arrive. Her expression had turned eager. "I can find her."

Thorne laughed. "You're adorable, babe. But leave it to the MiB. This is what we do."

"No really, I can help."

Thorne stopped laughing. "You're helping me by staying safe. I don't want to be on a mission and be distracted because I'm thinking you're out there trying to stop some Lunars on your own or something."

"If we were together, it wouldn't be on my own."

Thorne dragged a hand down his face. "Cress, do you hear yourself? What's the number one rule if we're going to see each other?"

Her face fell. "No one can know we're together."

Seeing how disappointed she was, he tried to loop his arms around her for encouragement. "It's for your own safety. Leave the crazies to me, okay?"

She didn't look at him but she nodded.

"Good," he said, giving her a kiss on the forehead.

She finally hugged him back, and he breathed out some of the tension that he'd been holding in all day. "Want to stay at my place again tonight?" she asked.

Thorne pulled away slightly. "Again? You figured out I was there?"

"I have video surveillance, you know."

He frowned. He hadn't seen any cameras at her place when he'd visited her on other occasions. But he was too tired to think about where she hid them. Besides, if she knew that he had been there, then she knew he hadn't completely stood her up. And if she had still come to see him today, then she definitely wasn't mad at him. And that was _always _a good thing.

"I want to, Cress, believe me. But not tonight."

"I wore your favorite dress," she said, shrugging the shoulder of her thin coat without letting go of him. "The blue one."

Thorne's insides screamed. The blue, spaghetti strap, plunging neckline one, to be specific. It was the one she'd worn when he'd first met her. "Exploiting weaknesses is an unfair tactic, babe." He kissed the top of her head. "Stars I love that dress."

"I only wear it for my favorite hero."

"I prefer superhero, actually." But his face fell as soon as he'd said it, and he was glad that she was pressed against him and couldn't see it. "I'm sorry, Cress. I just can't stay tonight."

"Okay," she whispered into his shirt. "Maybe next time."

Thorne closed his eyes and tried not to pass out while standing there. "Next time let me come to you, okay? No more showing up at my doorstep."

He heard her sigh against his chest and, for a moment, wished that he could go just one night without disappointing her.

At least she hadn't been mad at him for the majority of their time together. He would take what he could get at this point. And, he supposed, give what he was able to give—even though he had a nagging feeling that it just wasn't enough.


	8. Chapter 8

"Aimery's not talking," said Wolf, scratching at the stubble on his chin.

MiB had policies about their agents staying clean-shaven at all times, but they somehow always seemed to overlook Wolf, which was a little unfair, according to Thorne. He rubbed his own (smooth) chin in thought, watching Aimery interact with Dr. Erland.

It was a well-known fact that Dr. Erland could make almost any Lunar talk, knowing just how to manipulate their weaknesses for his purposes. Or pleasure, according to Kai, who had recently come to believe that Dr. Erland was a sadistic psychopath who got off on torturing Lunars.

Torture was a bit strong of a word choice, in Thorne's opinion. He preferred to think of it as Earthens taking a page out of the Lunar book and using their own form of manipulation. Sometimes it required force, that's all. Especially with people who were _confirmed _sadistic psychopaths, like Aimery Park.

Dr. Erland's work, on the other hand, was documented thoroughly and could be observed from the one-way window outside of his laboratory, where they were currently standing. Much of his research had also led to the development of new technologies for the agents to use when warding off glamour. Sometimes, that research came directly from these sessions with Lunar criminals.

"Bastard's still playing us," he said, seeing the way the smug look only increased with each of Dr. Erland's questions. "He wanted to get caught."

Thorne saw Kai's frown in the reflection. He'd been released from medical supervision, but he, too, was looking rather rough around the edges. He hadn't made it home since they'd fallen for Aimery's trap, and he was extremely irritated at his forced overnight stay at the MiB med clinic. "Of course he did. Sybil clearly wanted someone on the inside to steal the Amplifier. So what if he blows up a couple of agents in the process?"

"Sybil's anything but stupid." The three of them turned to see Jacin in the hallway. He gestured for them to join him. "She knows there's no way we'd let him escape."

Thorne crossed his arms. "That cyborg escaped a few months back. Knocked Kai out."

Kai suddenly started coughing violently. When Thorne and Jacin had both pounded them on the back, he looked up, eyes watering from pain. "She wasn't in a top security cell. And she had a _knife_ in her hand. Even Dr. Erland missed that."

"S'okay," said Wolf, shrugging. "They've all gotten the best of us at some point or another. We're not going to make that mistake with Aimery this time."

They walked in silence back to AR-20, a large conference room that was normally reserved for top MiB security meetings. It had been converted into the base of operations for the Sybil Mira Takedown—at least, that's what Thorne liked to call it in his head. It was much more fun than Case Number 5481 or whatever it was scribbled on top of all the e-files he'd pored over this morning with another pot of coffee.

Case _study_ was his least favorite part about working at MiB. But, like all jobs—at least, he assumed—there were always going to be advantages and disadvantages. And with three other agents on his team, he didn't have to read things as thoroughly as Rikan and Torin would have liked. Especially when there was someone like Jacin around, who knew the details of each case as if he himself had invented them. Show-off that he was, he liked to remind everyone of this frequently.

AR-20 was buzzing with people, most of them desk agents. The wattage grids had been lighting up New Beijing like fireworks all day, but every time a field team had shown up to arrest the perpetrators, the indicated location had been vacant. The tech agents were trying to figure out a pattern or code within these wattage grid manipulations, but had come up short. Some of them were assigned the task of scouring the MiB feeds for facial and vocal recognition patterns that matched Sybil Mira.

"G-good afternoon, Agents K, J, T, and W," said one of the desk agents nervously as they entered the room. Her tie was fastened sloppily and her suit looked like it hadn't been pressed in days, but staring at the four of them in awe like that made her kind of cute. _Probably her first assignment_, Thorne thought, when he noted how young she was. "Such an honor to work with you. I've heard so many stories about your team."

"Dream team, isn't it," said Thorne cockily, flashing her a bright smile.

Jacin rolled his eyes and ignored her. Kai, however, reached out his hand. "Nice to meet you, Agent…?"

The girl stared at Kai's hand as if she might faint at the sight of it. "It's just Elanora. I'm interning here this semester on exchange from the MiB Academy in Sydney."

"It's nice to meet you, Elanora."

Thorne was itching to cut to the chase and get on with learning the latest details, so he gave Elanora a welcoming nod and brushed past her with Jacin. Wolf and Kai followed, but so did Elanora. "I'm supposed to study your team dynamics today," she said, still nervous, holding up her portscreen. "It's one of my assignments."

The guys exchanged a look, but Wolf was the one who tried to give her a kind but firm smile. "I'm afraid today is a bad day, Elanora, you see—"

"You're right in the middle of an important mission, I can see that. I won't be in the way at all. I'll just observe and take notes." She held out her wrist. "Can I give you my information? If you ever have a less stressful day I'd really like to interview you as well."

Jacin snorted and opened his mouth, but Kai cut him off. "Sure thing." He swiped his wrist over Elanora's and allowed the transfer of information.

Thorne did the same to be polite, though he knew he would never comm her. "You're not going out with us on the field," he said, reluctantly siding with Jacin for once. "No way am I taking on that liability."

"Of course not," said Wolf, "we're—"

"Agents!" said Rikan, cutting into the little huddle they had formed at the side of the room. "We need you in the front. Now." When all five of them moved to follow him, Rikan paused and glanced at Elanora, as if it were the first time he'd noticed her. "Who are you?" he barked.

Her eye's opened like saucers when Rikan addressed her. "E-Elanora Lubbock," she stuttered.

"She's an intern," Thorne said.

"Tailing us," said Wolf.

"School project, apparently," said Kai.

Jacin just rolled his eyes again.

"No interns today," said Rikan sourly, snapping his fingers at Elanora.

"But—"

Thorne felt slightly sorry for the girl as Rikan's glare silenced her and she skedaddled out of there with a crestfallen look. The four agents walked with Rikan to join Torin at the front, who was busy being debriefed by one of the desk agents.

"—possible lead," she was saying. "Seen at ten this morning. Can't be a glamour."

Torin lifted an eyebrow to them in greeting. "We've found a local connection to Sybil Mira. Man by the name of Jerrico Solis. Ibramihov?"

Thorne then recognized the woman as the well-known, now middle-aged desk agent who had served as a field agent before she had lost use of her left eye completely and refused a cybernetic operation. She enlarged a profile of a man with fiery ginger hair and a massive rap sheet of petty crimes in downtown New Beijing. Next to Thorne, Kai sucked in a breath.

"He is not listed on our registration records as a Lunar who possesses a powerful gift, though it is not beyond Sybil Mira to work with the ungifted. She will hire any type of thug."

"It's not just that," said Kai quietly.

They stared at him.

"You recognize him?" asked Torin sharply.

"Yes." Kai's ears began to turn a slight shade of red. He stuffed his hands in his pockets. "A few months ago I was researching this so-called _moon gang_ that the locals whisper about. It's a group of Lunars who believe they'd been forced into oppression by Earthens so they've created this gang to deal with local, uh, problems. I made some notes about it in the case related to the cyborg. After, uh, she went missing and we tried to find her family."

"Was she part of this _moon gang_?"

"No!" said Kai quickly—too quickly, in Thorne's opinion. Why was he so defensive about a girl that knocked him out and dragged him halfway across the basement cellar? "But they hurt her little sister, or something…I don't really remember." Kai's ears were still red. "Jerrico Solis is the leader of that gang. I wanted to bring him in but couldn't find any just cause to arrest him."

"Now you have it," said Rikan, snapping his fingers again. "I want this man taken into custody alive and questioned! I want to know why he met with Sybil Mira this morning! _I want to know everything about this man before Sybil can use him to do any damage!_"

Torin frowned deeply at Rikan, but didn't say anything. Thorne smirked to himself and wondered if Rikan's angry outburst would cause a lover's spat later. That was the rumor anyway, about the two of them. Thorne had never been stupid enough to ask.

When Rikan spoke again, he did not shout. "Agent K, you will accompany Ibramihov to the facility for open cases and locate the encrypted file on the hardware related to this moon gang. As for the rest of you, you will bring Mr. Solis in immediately."

Kai looked like he was ready to protest about not going with them on the mission, but he clamped his jaw shut with one more stern look from Rikan. He must have really been having a bad day. "Yes, sir."

"Now, may we—"

It happened all at once, as if someone had cut the lights, but the invisiscreens in the room turned off as well, plummeting AR-20 into darkness. The chatter in the room stopped. It became so quiet that Thorne wanted to make a joke just to cut through the silence. Then the screens flickered to life, first warbling in that annoying green of a bad connection and then changing shape to show…

Sybil Mira.

Her face was far too beautiful for someone so ugly. "Good afternoon, MiB," she said, her voice sending a chill down Thorne's spine. "I'm thrilled by the warm welcome I've received in my return to your beautiful city. The Earthens of New Beijing are so much more…_fun_."

The screen changed to a heap of bloodied bodies crumpled together. Thorne's lip curled at the sight of them. There were probably six or seven of them, maybe more. Clearly dead.

"Trace this comm now!" yelled Rikan over the new buzz in the room, making Thorne jump.

The broadcast panned back to Sybil. "But I was very sorry to hear that you didn't treat my emissary with kindness," she continued, her smile turning into a scowl.

"Emissary," spat Jacin. "As if she's some member of royalty or something."

"I will have him back," she said. "And I'll take the Amplifier too." The room erupted again in outrage. Unlike Rikan, Torin simply held up a hand to silence everyone. "Ah, but you don't negotiate with terrorists." She smiled broadly. "It's good thing, then, that I'm not a terrorist, and just a lowly Lunar, in the end. I have no patience to wait while you decide what to do, so I'll make it simple for you. We'll do an exchange."

"Good luck," muttered Jacin.

"Give me back Aimery and the Amplifier, and I'll give you back your agent unharmed."

"What agent?" said more than one person. "Who's missing?"

Either their desk agents were completely incompetent or Sybil was just trying to intimidate them. They would know if one of their agents was missing.

The camera zoomed away from Sybil and moved to a corner of the room where someone lay bound and gagged on the floor. It was definitely a girl, Thorne thought as the camera began to zoom in. He squinted until it wasn't necessary anymore and the camera gave everyone a perfect view.

Then ice filled his lungs.

She was still wearing the blue dress, but she had been stripped of her jacket and shoes. She was crumpled onto her side, the moon tattoo that he'd brushed his lips over dozens of times practically mocking him now from where it peeked out over her binds. Her cheek was sporting a sizable bruise and her gag was soaked with tears.

The agony on her face threatened to cripple him.

He didn't have time to recover from his shock before Sybil was back on the screen. "I didn't know you were using Lunars undercover these days. It's a shame that this one had to get sucked in and betray her own kind. But no matter"—her voice dropped to a snarl—"she's proved herself useful. You should really think twice before letting your top tech agents sit around at home with no protection."

"WHICH TECH AGENT IS THAT?" Rikan bellowed. "GET ME AN ID!"

"Never seen that shortcake before," said Jacin under his breath.

"You'll be happy to know that you've trained her well. It is her work that will allow us to send this recording to you afterward." Sybil approached the girl, then, making Thorne clench his fists at his side when she grabbed her chin rather forcefully. "Where is the entrance to the MiB headquarters?" she said. When she got no response, Sybil slapped her across the face.

She smoothed her blouse and faced the camera again. "She won't speak. Won't give up any of your secrets. Therefore, past this communication, I have no use for her." Her cold eyes narrowed. "Bring me Aimery and the Amplifier or your agent dies. I'll be in touch with the drop-off location. You have twenty-four hours."

There was a brief pause in which they thought the comm would disconnect, but Sybil held up her hand. "One more thing. Just in case any of you get any funny ideas, I'm going to add an additional term to our agreement. The person who makes the exchange will be her boyfriend and _only _her boyfriend."

Thorne choked as Sybil vanished and each invisiscreen in the room was replaced by street surveillance video footage.

Thorne taking Cress's hand as they walked.

Thorne holding Cress tightly and closing his eyes while she leaned into his chest.

Thorne helping her climb into the hover.

Then, surveillance from another street. Her street. An abrupt but passionate goodbye kiss.

Then the comm disconnected.

The lights flickered back on and so did the chaotic energy of all the agents in the room, but Thorne stared at the blank screen in horror, unable to move.

Someone dragged him through the commotion and into the hallway.

"What is the meaning of this, Agent T?" said Torin, his voice dangerously low. Thorne blinked and looked around him. Kai, Jacin, and Wolf were watching him with alarm, Rikan was rubbing the bridge of his nose, and Torin's face was eerily complacent.

"Her name is Cress…Crescent Darnel. She's just a civilian." He cleared his throat. "A Lunar civilian."

"Is she your girlfriend?"

"No! I mean—I see her, sometimes. We hang out. That footage is totally out of context. A montage, really, edited to look a certain way."

Torin crossed his arms. "Edited. So I suppose that end shot, with the two of you exchanging saliva, was just Sybil playing around with technology?"

Thorne swallowed hard. Then he tried to change tactics. "She's not an agent."

"Obviously," said Rikan.

"I don't know why Sybil thinks she's a tech agent. She works at a flower shop. Totally harmless."

"Does she know _you're_ an agent of the MiB?"

"Well, the topic hasn't exactly come up in conversation, I mean…she may have noticed a cut now and then and wondered what type of _job_—"

"Agent T!"

Thorne looked down, his mouth going dry. "Yeah, she knows."

One of his team members cursed. When Thorne dared look back up, Rikan's face was beet red. Thorne was actually afraid for a moment, but not as afraid as he was for Cress. "We have to help her. I know we don't negotiate on principle but she's not an _agent_ she's an innocent _civilian_. This case is different now. Did you see what Sybil did to those other people at the beginning of her broadcast?"

Rikan snapped his fingers again, this time at Kai. "Agent K, you will proceed as planned and accompany Ibramihov. Agents W and J, you track down Jerrico Solis in the meantime and bring him in. Torin, can you assemble a team to go to the Lunar's house and look for any information that can lead us to Sybil?"

Torin nodded curtly. He pulled out his portscreen and stepped back into AR-20.

"What about me?" asked Thorne. He knew Cress's little apartment better than anyone. And she had video surveillance, apparently. She had mentioned that last night. Maybe something would show up that could be useful. Maybe Cress had made a call, watched a show, done something—anything—last night before she had been taken. Or maybe they had taken her on the street that morning after she'd woken up.

_She had said she'd wanted to help him with his work despite his warnings. What had she done? _

"What about _you_? You have not only jeopardized the life of a civilian but also put this entire mission and organization at risk by revealing your true identity and engaging inappropriately with said civilian. Agent T, you are hereby under review and suspended from this mission and _any _mission until further notice."

"But—"

"Move along, Agents," said Rikan.

Kai, Jacin, and Wolf hurried down the hallway. They didn't acknowledge Thorne as they left.

"Sir," Thorne tried, "if you would just let me—"

But Rikan was already walking into AR-20 and sliding the door shut behind him.

Thorne punched the wall, wishing all of his rage and frustration and fear would dissolve into the pain it caused in his knuckles.

This was all his fault.

* * *

**Note**: Hello, sorry it's been awhile since I updated. This story unfortunately got plagiarized and even though the person took it down, it kind of uninspired me to update. Now it's Ship Weeks and I wrote a few new stories, which I hope you enjoyed. But I've decided to continue with Agent T and I hope you will too. Thanks for reading.


	9. Chapter 9

Thorne was beginning to wonder if the investigation room had some sort of invisible fireplace built into the wall. Maybe that was the real reason why the Lunars Dr. Erland investigated in this room began to sweat.

He had always just thought it was nerves.

His palms wouldn't stop sweating. In the last two hours, he'd rubbed them against his pants so many times that he wondered how many more minutes would go by before they started chaffing.

That fireplace really needed to get shut off.

He contemplated taking off his tie or jacket about every five minutes, but always landed on the same conclusion: the extra transgression of dressing out of code was not worth it. Whatever member of the review board interviewing him would certainly not appreciate that when considering his case.

Besides being slick with sweat, his neck was also stiff because the bright lights in the investigation room beamed down at him in full force. He could either squint into oblivion or stare down at the table.

He'd chosen the table.

It had only been a matter of time before he'd attempted to rest his head against the table out of sheer boredom and the slight hope that it would be cool against his skin.

It also helped hide the fact that, inside, he was completely freaking out.

Sybil had Cress.

Sybil had _Cress._

_Sybil_ had Cress.

_Sybil had Cress._

And there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

_Nothing._

The girl he was sort-of-dating was probably getting her fingernails torn out of their beds one by one while he sat sweating in the same room where they'd investigated Aimery that very morning!

He didn't appreciate being treated like a criminal.

The swooping sensation in his stomach was more likely due to his association of this room primarily being for the Lunars that Dr. Erland interrogated. It wasn't like Dr. Erland would actually show up and start torturing him. That would be crazy. They were probably just short on rooms…he hoped. Sitting there with his head against the table made him reconsider everything he'd said that morning about using Earthen manipulation to pull out confessions. Surely that wasn't why he was in there.

It was just the room with its absurd heat creeping him out. The whole _situation_ was creeping him out.

He'd never personally known an agent who'd been under review before. Rikan hadn't given him more details about it—not like he'd expected him to. Rather, it was Nainsi who had come to claim him within minutes of Rikan disappearing back into AR-20. She'd accompanied him to the MiB security desk, which was a bit ridiculous, considering that MiB itself considered the entire organization to fall under the category of security.

He'd surrendered all MiB technology and weapons that he had on his person at the moment, though they'd thankfully let him keep the Glamour Blocker in his wrist. Forcing him to take that out on the spot would have just been inhumane. And so…permanent.

He'd never even considered leaving MiB. Rikan and Torin had made it pretty clear during recruitment that it was a lifelong job due to the highly-classified information that agents were privy to on a daily basis, not to mention the fact that Earthens were not supposed to know that Lunars had begun to live amongst them.

That was why there were so many desk agents. Turnover among employees would mean too much risk that someone would expose their secrets to a civilian.

Just like he'd done with Cress.

Except not really, because Cress was a_ Lunar_ civilian, as he'd clearly pointed out to MiB. _Obviously _she knew that there were Lunars on Earth. Clearly the agent reviewing his case would see that.

If that agent ever showed up. After visiting the security desk, Nainsi had escorted him here, to the investigation room of all places, to wait until he or she became available.

What happened if someone failed a review anyway?

The terms and stipulations of being under review were probably laid out in one of the hundred-page manuals that he'd been told to read during MiB training.

If only Jacin were here now. He'd know all the rules.

Despite the sweltering heat and the unknowns of his upcoming review, his thoughts always returned to Cress and the image of her tied up on the floor, her face streaked with tears.

When the door finally opened behind him, he pushed himself to a standing position out of respect, deciding that he would win over whoever was in charge of his review with charm and poise. He had the advantage of being able to say he was part of one of the most elite field agent teams MiB had seen in a long time.

Nah, he wouldn't even have to say it. The agent would say it for him and Thorne would lower his eyes humbly and casually remind him of some of their greater missions and how he was clearly the _sine qua non_ of the team.

Then he could get the aces out of this investigation room and get on with saving Cress.

And killing Sybil Mira, naturally.

He stood straighter as the agent rounded the table, but his mouth fell open when Kai plopped into the seat opposite his with a loud sigh.

"What happened? Did you get Jerrico? Already catch Sybil?" _Is Cress safe?_

Kai coughed and began scrolling through his portscreen, ignoring his questions and not even bothering to make eye contact. His hand paused on the tablet before he stared blankly at Thorne. "Thorne—I mean, um, _Agent T_—when did you first meet Registered Lunar #4659, current resident of New Beijing?"

Thorne gawked.

Kai repeated the question, this time looking back down at his port.

"Wait a minute," said Thorne, working his jaw and releasing all the tension that had built up since he'd left AR-20. "_You're_ doing my review? This is great!"

Kai squirmed in his chair. "This is not a review, Agent T. I'm here on behalf of"—he cleared his throat—"a team of, um, agents who are investigating a case regarding a dangerous, um…" He sighed heavily. "Stars, I can't do this. Thorne, I have to investigate you. We found some suspicious stuff at the Lunar's house."

Thorne rubbed his temple and tried to reconcile what Kai was telling him. Kai was not the agent reviewing him. Kai was treating him like a subject in a case. And Cress…

"Her name is Cress."

"Okay—"

"Why'd they send you?"

"Would you really want Jacin investigating you?" said Kai dryly.

Thorne didn't laugh.

"They thought I would be the best person to talk to you. We've known each other the longest."

"But we're teammates."

Kai looked away. "We were," he said to the wall.

Thorne gave him a light slap on the shoulder to make him focus back on him. "Come on, Kai. This is going to get cleared up...you know it is."

"It's not looking good, Thorne. What you did was inexcusable. MiB is classified so high that only the top Earthen Union leaders know what's going on."

"Why is this so complicated? She's _Lunar_. She knows MiB exists. She got registered at some point."

"You didn't even check when she was registered?"

He shrugged. "I didn't notice her because she was doing something illegal when I met her. I saw she had a moon tattoo though, so obviously I knew she was Lunar."

"What if it was fake?"

"Two requests," said Thorne, raising his hand in the air. "One, turn the heat down in this blasted room. Second, stop wasting my time with stupid questions when I need to get out there and take down Sybil. You came in here knowing she's not an unregistered Lunar, so get on with it!"

Kai didn't react to Thorne's on-edge demeanor, but he did walk over to the window and ask if someone could bring them two glasses of water. Thorne noticed that he pulled at his tie in a clear show of warmth as he made the request.

Sitting back down, Kai folded his hands on the table. "Would you like to have another outburst or would you like me to finish my investigation so we can get on with saving your _girlfriend_?"

They both glared at each other.

"Fine," said Thorne, sitting back in his chair. "Ask me whatever you want."

Kai reached for his port again, but then shoved it aside like it was an annoying toy he didn't want to play with anymore. "How'd you meet her?"

"I was buying flowers in her shop for another girl. She was trying to convince me to buy a different kind because apparently the ones I chose meant death and agony and she didn't want that for my relationship." The thought of her trying to intimidate him into changing selections made him smirk.

"Was this at _Dragon's Lilies_?" said Kai, nodding. "Her record says she's been an employee there for three years."

"That's the one. It's not that far from her apartment. I thought she was cute, so I decided to give her the flowers instead and didn't comm the other girl."

Kai snorted.

"I saw her moon tattoo only after I'd been talking to her for a bit and she took off her sweater. And I knew I should have walked away but she had on this…this _dress,_ Kai. You've gotta understand. Cute is an understatement. She might as well have been wearing a glamour. The fact that she wasn't just made her that much more intriguing."

The door opened and a person Thorne didn't recognize came in with two glasses of water. Kai thanked him politely but Thorne felt justified in not acknowledging the agent. He did down the water gratefully, though, even if outwardly he tried to pretend that he wasn't as parched as a piece of sandpaper.

"And you started dating shortly after?"

"We're not dating."

Kai didn't say anything aloud, but his face said, "Cut the bullshit."

"Maybe we're dating. I don't know. We started hanging out after that. We have this game that we play, it's—"

Kai held up his hand. "I don't want to know. What I do want to know is how long you've known that she was also a spy."

Thorne blinked. "I'm sorry?"

"You don't have to lie to me, Thorne. We've been on the same team since we started training together and I can read right through you."

"I'm _not _lying. Cress isn't a spy."

Kai gritted his teeth in frustration. He reached out for his port and began typing furiously while Thorne tried to figure out what in the name of spades was going on. Cress? A spy? There was no way.

The invisiscreen embedded in the wall that was used to show incriminating photos to their Lunar suspects lit up, making Thorne's stomach drop. He had seen enough incriminating photos this morning from Sybil.

Were Wolf and Jacin outside the room watching him interact with Kai? Were there making jokes at his expense, the way that the four of them always did with the Lunars they brought in? Usually when Dr. Erland turned on the invisiscreen, they chorused something like: "_Ohhh_! Caught red-handed, sucker!"

But the image that popped up was not of him nor of Cress. Rather, it was of a room full of netscreens. Some of them were older models and looked like they'd been purchased secondhand.

"Recognize these?" said Kai.

"No," said Thorne, crossing his arms. "Where is that?"

"These were found in the secret room behind her wardrobe."

"Her _what_?"

Kai eyed him skeptically, one eyebrow raised as he studied Thorne, who was trying to figure out which wardrobe and _how_ and _why_ and _what_!? "Did you really not know?"

"Aces, Kai. No! She has a secret room?" How had he possibly missed that?

Kai walked over to the invisiscreen. Sending the current image away, he pulled up image after image depicting the room that Thorne had never known about. He hadn't realized he'd been holding his breath until the images changed to show a snapshot of an image file with Thorne's picture on it.

It was the one he'd taken after passing his MiB field test—the one where he was winking flippantly at the camera.

His throat went dry. He wished he hadn't consumed all the water in one sitting. "Um, that's—what?"

"It's her screensaver," said Kai. Thorne noticed his ears go red as he turned back to the screen and avoided eye contact. "Did you give her this image file?"

"No, definitely not," said Thorne quickly, the urge to defend himself suddenly high and overwhelming. "She knew I was an agent but I never, ever talked about missions. And I definitely didn't give her any classified information. You have to believe me, Kai."

Kai sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. He returned to the desk and studied Thorne again. "I thought you might say that. And, if it's true, then we have an even bigger problem. If you had given her that image, then at least we could have ruled out the possibility of her hacking into our system." He spoke into his port. "Let the team over there know that Agent T didn't give her the file and that I want all those netscreens brought back to MiB headquarters. Alternate routes should be taken upon return, as Sybil or Registered Lunar #4659 may have set up a way to track us back. Sybil wants the location of our entrance." To Thorne, he said, "We haven't been able to get past her screensaver. It's password protected and the team on site was not prepared for that sort of scenario. Our _real_ tech agents are going to have to look at it."

Dumbfounded, Thorne's eyes trailed back over the image of his MiB field test graduation. He tried to imagine Cress sitting in that dark room, talking to his face or something creepy like that. If it were any other situation, he probably would have laughed it off and made a smart comment about how a girl would _obviously_ use his face for her screensaver. But this was…something else entirely.

"So you think she's a spy?" he breathed.

"Why would someone work at a flower shop when she is clearly skilled enough at hacking to steal MiB encrypted data?"

He hadn't visited her at the shop much. He preferred to play the cat and mouse game of agent trailing Lunar. It was easier to keep up appearances that way anyway, should anyone ever catch wind of the two of them together. But his cover was blown now. Everyone had seen them kissing, even _Sybil._

She had always talked positively about her work, though. And she loved flowers. He was sure she knew the names of every single flower in existence.

"Maybe she couldn't get a job doing what she was good at?" he said weakly.

"We think she might be working with Sybil Mira."

Thorne drew back. The idea was absurd. "No, she couldn't work for her. That doesn't make any sense. Why would she pretend like Cress is one of our agents? Obviously she thinks she is, or she would know she has no leverage on us to get the Amplifier." Thorne's eyes widened. "Wait, Kai—you're not going to tell her that Cress isn't one of ours, right? Maybe Cress said that because she didn't know what to do when she got taken hostage. The second Sybil finds out, she's dead. You heard what she said in the comm. She's not useful anymore."

"The other civilians who were killed didn't get the cover of the MiB to save them."

Thorne paled. "You can't tell me you want her to die."

"Of course not," said Kai, irritation returning to his features. "But we can't ignore the fact that this whole thing might be a set up. She's working for someone. If it's not Sybil, then it's an external agency."

"Who? _We're_ the Lunar agency. We're the only ones."

Cress couldn't work for Sybil. Cress couldn't work for anyone else. She was just…secretly good at hacking into encrypted files? He repeated Kai's thoughts about someone like that working in a flower shop and came up short with excuses as to why that didn't look suspicious. If he didn't know Cress, he would be the first person to be suspicious too.

"Maybe they're government conspiracy theorists," said Kai. "And they hired her to find out the truth about Lunars."

Thorne groaned. "Don't start that again."

Kai tapped his portscreen. "Let's move on to the next question. How long has she been seducing you?"

"Hey, _I'm_ the one…" He was the one doing the seducing, he wanted to say, but that sounded…bad. And slightly untrue. He'd been taken by her since the first time he'd seen her in the flower shop, when she'd approached him about his ridiculous selection of flowers.

There was no way.

He was the one who tracked her signal when he wanted to see her.

But…she was the one who tinkered with her registration chip ever so slightly when she wanted to see him.

Forcing him to track her signal.

His head spun.

No.

Cress wasn't capable of that sort of trickery. She didn't run around New Beijing trying to seduce agents to get close to them. She was innocent, happy….shy, even. It was only this week that she'd been bold enough to show up at his house.

But that was because he hadn't been paying her much attention lately.

The only doubt he'd ever had about her was whether she'd lose interest in his inability to commit the way she wanted him to. The way that he couldn't, because he was an agent of the MiB and she was a Lunar. Besides, he didn't even know if he _wanted_ to commit to her.

"She wasn't seducing me," he said firmly.

Kai's fingers drummed against the table. He looked away again, back to his favorite spot on the wall. "So...are you in love with her?"

"No! I don't know if we're even officially dating."

"You could still love her."

"Get on with your questioning, Agent K," said Thorne through gritted teeth.

Kai's gaze went back to the portscreen. "Does she know where you live? We've reviewed the footage of you two walking together but it seems like it starts off a few blocks away from your apartment."

"Yeah, she knows."

Kai's look made him nearly jump out of the chair. "I didn't invite her there! She was waiting for me when I got home last night, but I told her she shouldn't be there! That's why we were walking."

"Don't you find it interesting that she showed up at your place right after Aimery tried to blow us up?"

The thought had never even occurred to him until that moment. There was agent work and then there was his personal life, which currently consisted mostly of finding time to be with Cress.

Agent work.

Cress.

The two didn't mix.

"It's a coincidence," he said, deciding that it was.

"You know I'm trying to get through these questions but all I'm doing is trying to wrap my mind around you being with a Lunar. You're always the first to make a joke at their expense. And aren't you one of the top proponents of our current Lunar regulations?"

"Yeah, well…the Lunars we work with are crazy."

"So why shouldn't your, um…" Kai cleared his throat again, making Thorne want to punch him for the extra awkwardness it created between them. "Why shouldn't Crescent Darnel be crazy as well?"

"Cress. She hates being called Crescent. And no, because not _all_ Lunars are bad."

"I agree."

Thorne slid forward in his chair. "You…you do?"

"Most of them are good people. We just see all the bad apples in this job." Kai glanced around nervously, then lowered his voice to a whisper. "Off the record, I learned a lot about discrimination against people who wear the moon tattoo when I was investigating the case with the cyborg. Like I said this morning, there's talk of this moon gang. The Earthens in certain neighborhoods have picked up on the fact that there's something distinct about the people who have the moon tattoo and that some people with them, like Jerrico Solis, like to make trouble. Many Earthens associate everyone who wears the tattoo as part of this supposed gang."

Thorne's interest piqued when he mentioned Jerrico Solis. "Did you guys manage to get Solis?"

"You know I can't share that with you as he's not directly involved with our line of questioning for Crescent Darnel."

"Not directly involved! Cress has been taken hostage by the woman who's using him to do her dirty work."

"Sorry, it's classified," said Kai.

To his credit, he did look sorry, but Thorne looked to the ceiling in frustration anyway. He'd been working on the same mission with Kai just a few hours ago.

"Okay," he tried to bargain. "Keep the information classified. But use me, Kai. I know the hostage. I'm the strongest person you've got for this mission."

"I think it makes you the weakest person, actually."

Thorne slammed his fists against the table. "I am not weak. Just because I—because I—spend time with Cress doesn't mean—"

"Maybe weak is the wrong word," said Kai, cutting him off. "Most compromised, then. Sybil wants you to make the drop just because you're the _boyfriend. _She knows you won't risk Cress's life, and I'm beginning to believe that too."

"Kai." His voice came out more strangled than he would have liked. "Please. I have to be part of this mission. Maybe you can use me as a pawn instead...or something, if they won't let me be a field agent. Kai, I've got to be on this."

"Maybe you should have thought about that before getting romantically involved with a Lunar," said Kai, his eyes fixed on the wall again.

"You just said all Lunars aren't bad!"

"I didn't say we should date them or tell them our identities," he said, getting up from the table.

"Wait, where are you going? You can't already be leaving. What are you doing about Cress? About Sybil?"

"You're suspended, Thorne," said Kai loudly. Then, with his lips almost unmoving, he whispered, "I think we're just continuing on as if we hadn't gotten that comm from Sybil. Attempting to bargain with the Amplifier and Aimery just isn't worth it, especially when the hostage seems to be compromised."

Thorne wanted to jump up and yell at Kai but he knew that whoever who was outside would hear him. Attempting to contain his boiling rage, he whispered back, "Compromised or not, we can't just let Sybil kill her." Then, in a voice that everyone could hear, he cursed at Kai about his suspension.

"It's one life over cities full of destruction if Sybil gets her hand on the Amplifier, Thorne," Kai whispered back. "You do the math."

Then Kai left Thorne alone in the investigation room, his hands shaking and his mind still swimming with anger at his suspension, worry for Cress, and doubt that every interaction he'd ever had with her had been a complete lie.

* * *

**Note:** Hope anyone who's on the East Coast is staying safe and warm!


	10. Chapter 10

Thorne's walk of shame out of MiB headquarters was slow and long and lonely, since the investigation room was nowhere near the official exit. Each room he passed reminded him of the missions he'd been on and even more so, the mission he should be on right now with his team.

The official comm he'd received from MiB Security told him—in an exhaustingly detailed message—that he was free to go and Rikan or Torin would be in touch when it was time for his review. It had been hard not to throw his portscreen against the wall.

He would not lay low. Not when Sybil Mira was still at large, not when she had Cress, and certainly not when he didn't know if Cress was a victim or a villain.

The thought of her as either made his stomach knot up again, his hands fisting involuntarily at his sides.

Kai had been right not to believe him. How could he have possibly missed that extra room or her security surveillance? Why hadn't he pressed her for more information when she said she'd wanted to help him on missions? What kind of _help _would she have offered, if he had asked? Would he have stumbled upon her secrets? Gotten suspicious of her insatiable need to be around him?

Spades and aces and stars _above_, he'd been made a fool.

"Tonight, apparently."

Thorne's inner monologue ceased at the sound of hushed voices around the corner. He lifted his chin and increased the proud swagger of his stride. Walk of shame or not, he was _Agent T _and that fact alone demanded the respect of all the lesser agents in this agency.

"I heard Solis squealed like a pig under Erland's scrutiny."

"Can you imagine?"

Thorne slowed to a quiet stop as someone giggled in response. If Erland had gotten Solis to talk, then that meant they had caught Solis. And if Solis had talked…

He moved silently to the wall by the corner, listening.

"I'm thinking of applying to the mission tonight."

"Don't be daft, Morgan, you're not even a full-time field agent."

"The debrief made it clear that a multitude of agents were needed tonight as back-up. As long as I don't suck face with a Lunar I think I'll be okay."

Thorne rounded the corner with a glare to confront the now-snickering pair of agents. Their faces both burned with embarrassment as soon as they recognized him.

"A-Agent T," stuttered the man.

Thorne crossed his arms. "Something you'd like to say to me about who I _suck face_ _with_?"

"No," said the woman quickly. She grabbed the man's arm and tugged him back. "Morgan and I were just leaving."

They scurried down the hallway from where Thorne had come.

"If they wanted to use you for a mission, they would have let you know by now!" he called after them. "You don't just _apply!_"

As if those two twerps would ever be chosen by his team members to join their mission. Scoffing, he continued along his way, knowing that if they would allow _him_ to participate in the mission tonight then they wouldn't _need_ back-up. The four of them were unstoppable.

At least, they usually were. Sybil had torn them apart before.

Back-up was never a bad idea, he concluded, but he was confident that he still had a valid point. Not that it mattered. He would have no influence on how tonight's mission turned out, whatever it was they were up to.

He'd been betrayed by his girl _and_ his team.

* * *

The attractive agent who acted as a mechanic in the New Beijing Market didn't bother to hide her disdain for him as he exited headquarters.

So, word had spread this far then already. How could it not, when Sybil had broadcast his exploits with a Lunar over every netscreen in the agency?

He stuffed his hands in his pockets and shuffled through the busy street vendors. Maybe he would stop and get some pork buns to go before he went home and figured out his next move.

"Agent T!" someone hissed in front of him.

His eyes snapped up to a semi-familiar face. It was that intern from this morning. What had been her name again?

Thorne took her by the arm and pulled her behind a booth that wasn't overly crowded. "Don't address me that way in public," he snapped.

She bit her lip and looked down, heat creeping to her cheeks. It reminded him of Cress and made him angrier. If this intern dared say anything to him like those two snoops he'd found in the hallway…

"I'm sorry, Agent…um, Mister T, I didn't mean to…" She wrung her hands, dejection washing over her in a big wave. He could see no mockery in her expression.

Thorne sighed, trying to let some of his anger dissipate. "You can call me Thorne."

She looked up. "I can?"

"What was yours again?"

"Elanora."

"How can I help you, Elanora?"

Her whole face brightened. "I was hoping to check how your mission is going. It seemed so stressful this morning before they made me leave."

"You mean…you don't know what's going on?" The idea of it caught him off guard. Had she really missed his netscreeen debut and his suspension?

"No," she said, glum again. "I don't know why I thought you guys would have time to give me interviews when you have top-secret missions to take care of. I went out to breakfast after they kicked me out. I didn't feel like sitting outside in the hallway while everyone else was in on the excitement."

Thorne studied her carefully. She was dressed in plainclothes, unlike this morning, and though he remembered her rumpled outfit, he hadn't given her more than a second thought when he'd met her. Elanora was certainly a little rough around the edges. Not exactly a stunner, but by no means ugly, he wondered if she wouldn't look quite cute with her raven hair let down. This girl desperately needed a more delicate touch.

He softened his features. "I know how you feel."

She kicked at a pebble. "I doubt it. You're"—she dropped her voice to a barely audible whisper—"Agent T. _A legend_. You're part of the team I'm _studying _at MiB Academy. You're always in on the action."

He smirked, unable to resist the way she was clearly star struck in his presence. "Perhaps I misjudged you this morning. It sounds like you could use a little action, isn't that right, Elanora?"

She became flustered immediately—just as he'd hoped and expected. He could do whatever he wanted with this puddle of admiration now.

Draping an arm around her shoulders, he guided her back into the crowded walkway of the market. "Being an agent in training can be quite stressful. I recognize the same spark in you that I had when I was in your shoes. We've actually just finished up with today's mission so I've got some time to kill. Why don't we grab some dinner and take it back to my apartment?"

"Really? You wouldn't mind if we did your interview there?"

He laughed. "Oh, I'll make sure you get a _fabulous _interview, darling."

* * *

"I love your apartment."

Thorne leaned casually against the door frame, observing Elanora enter his place with a little too much enthusiasm. She studied everything as if she were at a museum, glancing back at him every now and then as though wondering if he would take back his invitation for her to be there.

"It's a penthouse," he said, winking. "Access to the roof is key when you're an agent."

Elanora beamed at him, eating up everything he was saying, which made him want to laugh again. She returned to studying the apartment, and Thorne wondered how any agent—in-training or not—could find it useful to wear such a tight pencil skirt. Then again, he'd seen agents chase down Lunars in high-heeled shoes—a feat that always left him in awe.

Elanora paused in front of his entertainment system, where the netscreen displayed a picture of him giving a brunette in a bikini a kiss on the cheek. "Does your girlfriend live here too?"

It was just random girl that one of the MiB tech agents had merged into one of his images, but the idea of having a girlfriend almost made him laugh bitterly. He swallowed any feelings that weren't smooth and casual. "We don't talk about our private lives in this line of work. This is just my agent pad. I've got a whole different identity that I assume when I'm not being Agent T." He held up the bag of pork buns. "Why don't we go through your interview questions while we eat?"

Thorne ran her name through the MiB database scanner on his portscreen while they ate and chatted, apologizing profusely for the rude interruptions, but, "An agent's work is never over." He was pleased to find that his access to the database hadn't yet been restricted. He was even more pleased to find that Elanora Lubbock of Australia had no worrisome record of any kind at her nineteen years of age.

She excelled in her classes, often going above and beyond what was necessary. A teacher's pet, from what he could gather. Someone who liked to please her superiors.

_She was perfect. _

Perhaps this horrible day had finally presented him with a bit of good luck.

"Not to interrupt, Elanora," he said, his fingers pausing on his portscreen, "but I've got a surprise for you."

She waited, as if unsure how to process this information.

"I comm'ed the guys and explained how you were given the short end of the stick today. Since we had the evening off, we came up with a practical way for you to get a feel of what it's like to be part of an elite team."

He could've sworn her eyes lit up like the stars, so he decided there was no reason to feel guilty about what he was about to do. Elanora would love this and get to feel useful, and later she could write some report about it when he knew what in the name of spades was going on with Sybil and Cress.

"What did you have in mind?" she asked, her eyes hopeful but still looking like she was waiting for Thorne to tell her it was all a joke.

"They've set up a series of obstacles for you at MiB headquarters. Similar to things we'd go through on the field but without the imminent danger. Since I'm the captain of our team, I'll accompany you and oversee how you handle everything. Then, when it's over, I'll rate your performance and offer comparisons to what we might have done instead. How it would have been different with a team, that sort of thing. Sound good?"

Her eyes bugged. "You did that for _me_?"

"I told you, I see that same spark in you. Our conversation tonight has showed me you have serious potential to be a stellar field agent. We think you'd benefit more from a hands-on experience. Don't you want to tell your friends someday that you got to train with Agent T?"

"Wow," she breathed. "I just need a moment to wrap my mind around this. So it's not a real mission but like…a simulation?"

"Exactly like a simulation. But it'll feel like a real one. We might even give you the challenge of doing some otherwise unethical tasks on behalf of MiB, to see how you react under pressure. In this field you have to make hard choices sometimes. Are you up for it?"

"Yes, absolutely," she said, clapping her hands excitedly. Then she dropped them into her lap like she knew she'd made the grave mistake of showing too much enthusiasm. "Sorry."

He chuckled, but partially because he was surprised it was so easy. "It's cool. You have another hour or two to calm your emotions before we need to get going. Then, once I've briefed you on your mission, you'll have to rein it all in."

As he spoke, he set up a countdown on his port to tick down the time it would take before Sybil would kill Cress. He had already wasted nine of the twenty-four hours. But he still had the whole night to work through. Elanora would come in handy for at least one third of that time, depending on how fast she could accomplish his tasks.

"I didn't know that MiB teams had captains. Have you always been the captain?"

"Of course," he lied smoothly. "Agent J is too grumpy for public relations, Agent W scares people, and Agent K is too neurotic." Then, forcing out a playful pout, he asked, "Wait a minute. Wouldn't you _expect _me to be the captain?"

"Of course," she said, blushing again. "I think you'd be the perfect captain, Agent T. I mean…Thorne." Her eyes flickered over to the netscreen, still displaying his fake girlfriend or sister or whatever she was supposed to be. She let out a girly sigh, but he got up from the table quickly, slightly worn out from all the adoration.

"Hang tight," he told her. "I need to make a private comm."

Thorne swiped his wrist to let himself into his bedroom, which he'd had another tech agent program to open for him alone. After he'd locked the door behind him again, he sank onto his bed and let out a long sigh.

_Women_.

He'd always known they'd be the death of him.

Why he'd had enough of a mental breakdown to fall for a _Lunar _woman of all the women there were to choose from was beyond him.

_Ugh._

He let his back fall onto the covers and wished he could just get some sleep, but the bed reminded him of Cress too.

Even if he could let that go, there was an eager young intern right outside his door who he needed to keep happily ignorant with whatever methods necessary. Anyone important would be heading out on whatever big mission they had planned for Sybil Mira, leaving MiB with less security then usual. He would still need Elanora's help to break into MiB.

No, sleep would have to be postponed yet again.

Thorne got off the bed reluctantly, pushed it aside with an aching grunt, and swiped his wrist a few more times to reveal the trapdoor hidden under a digitized floorboard. When he opened it, he relaxed back on his knees, his eyes trailing over the stockpile of weapons in front of him—the ones that he'd reported lost in action from his many missions and brought home in secret instead.

He grabbed a stack of Glamour Blockers and stuffed them into the pockets of his pants for good measure. One could never have enough of those, and MiB Security had taken any extra GB's he'd had on him at the time.

Thorne strapped on an old-fashioned gun holster, then carefully selected two MiB-issued guns: one to stun, one to kill. The latter was only supposed to be used in dire situations, since Lunars who overstepped their rights were supposed to be captured and questioned, not killed. Agents didn't even carry them on their person unless they were on a high-profile mission, like when they'd chased Aimery.

Suspended agents were not supposed to be packing either type. But, suspended or not, there was no way he was going anywhere without the ability to kill. He stashed both guns in the holster and reached to close the trapdoor again before pausing, his eyes snagging on a spare pair of shades.

_Alright, Crescent Darnel_, he thought, sliding the MiB sunglasses into the breast pocket of his collared shirt, _if that's even your name_. _Time to see what the aces you've been up to, babe. _


	11. Chapter 11

The New Beijing Market was dimly lit, with only a few late-night customers milling about as usual, but Thorne steered Elanora in the opposite direction anyway. With no need to be at MiB headquarters this late, the agent who had the night shift would naturally be suspicious of a suspended agent entering the premises. Thorne wasn't even sure if he was _allowed_ to be at MiB after the suspension. Why Rikan and Torin hadn't given him more detailed instructions was beyond him.

But it was better that way. He could always plead ignorance if someone caught him tonight.

Elanora kept pace with him, thankfully not questioning any of his moves. He'd spelled out the faux mission to her clearly:

Enter MiB undetected. Locate the Lunar's stolen netscreens. Steal encrypted information without getting caught. Leave MiB undetected.

Elanora did not know that the "encrypted information" on the "stolen netscreens" of the "Lunar" was actually a real case, nor would she find out. The fact that one of the top teams had planted a mission for her and was willing to test her abilities had her giddy with excitement. She had no reason to suspect that Thorne's fake "briefing" of what these netscreens would look like and more or less where they were hidden was anything but what he told her.

He'd contemplated giving her a gun as well, but junior agents in training didn't even get sunglasses yet, so he'd nixed that idea as quickly as it'd arisen. If they got caught, then it was better to just get caught for lying and carrying rather than arming someone who was barely above civilian status.

They walked in silence, as Thorne had instructed, since Elanora talked too much for his liking. He'd explained that on a real mission there wasn't any time to talk at all, because agents had to observe their surroundings and be alert at all times.

It was an easy lie. Yes, they had to be observant, but that never stopped the guys from chatting while they worked. It annoyed Jacin on almost every mission.

When they arrived at one of the hidden entrances that only a few elite teams were privy to, Thorne cocked his head towards a small spaceship garage that looked like it'd been abandoned for years. Tickertape condemning the location by local New Beijing authority fluttered against the light breeze, warning visitors of the dangerous conditions that lay beyond.

"There's an old cargo ship in there. If you look closely you'll see the word _Rampion_ etched into the side. The password that opens the hatch is Captain is King."

Elanora looked curiously at the garage. "That's a strange password."

"Can't have just anyone entering, now can we?" was all he replied, before stepping aside and gesturing to the garage. "I'll follow you. Let's see if you can locate the entrance once inside. Remember to keep quiet. We'll deduct points if we think you do something that could be detected. Stealth is everything, Elanora."

"Stealth is everything," she whispered back in determination.

Thorne clutched his portscreen in front of him, as if he were recording her moves, but while she climbed the garbage thrown haphazardly in front of the entrance, Thorne searched the local news for any sign of unusual explosions, deaths, or disturbances. Though MiB tried their best to cover up their tracks, sometimes—like when Sybil Mira had come to town last time—there was simply no way to hide a path of carnage from the public.

When no news of interest piqued his interest, Thorne silently slipped into the garage after Elanora. Unwilling to step in garbage, he took an easier path through the back.

When he got inside, Elanora was speaking almost lovingly to the Rampion. "Captain is _King_, Captain is _King_," she cooed, as if it were a cat.

Thorne nearly chuckled, but managed to keep a straight face.

The hatch eventually opened, and Elanora sighed in satisfaction, her face lighting up and then dimming just as quickly when she caught Thorne watching her.

This made him want to chuckle even more.

Once inside, Thorne propped himself up against one of the interior walls while Elanora searched for the entrance to the base. Maybe he'd come this way so much that it only _seemed_ obvious, but Thorne mentally deducted a few points when it took Elanora more than five minutes to realize that the entrance was clearly in the Captain's quarters.

"Got it!" she commed him excitedly.

He would definitely have to change his number when this whole ordeal was over.

He gave her a thumbs up inside the Captain's quarters when she discovered the hatchway under the large bed. He only felt slightly guilty that he didn't help her move the dusty bed aside.

Elanora stared at the hatchway, then ran a finger over her wrist lightly. She nodded and swiped it over the keyboard, and voilà, they were in. Elanora had already served half her purpose.

Thorne dragged a finger across his lips as they descended into the base, then waited until she flattened herself against the wall and inched forward. He knew they were losing precious time, but how else would he get Elanora to play along? There was no way this goody two shoes would willingly break all the rules.

Elanora glanced over her shoulder at him often while she moved, and more than once, he caught her checking him out. This fact made him feel guiltier than lying to her, because he would inevitably have to break her heart before the night was over.

He could no longer say he hadn't intentionally flirted with anyone since he'd met Cress, but that was neither here nor there. Elanora was a means to an end, that was all. That was what spy life was about: using any situation and sometimes, person, to his advantage to get what he needed to complete the mission or task at hand.

"Stop," Thorne whispered.

She halted, and gave him a satisfied smile when he stopped only inches from her. "What next, _Captain_?"

"There's a guard around the corner," he said, making another note that she was growing bolder around him. "Your task is to go distract the guard enough so that I can slip by unnoticed. Working on a team with MiB means diversions happen often. Once I'm out of earshot, you'll follow me to LW-16." _Where his team always left new evidence_.

"How will I get away from the guard?"

"That's part of your task, isn't it?"

Her head bobbed, but her eyes were full of thought—almost concern.

"You can do this," he added. "Remember your training. And," he added, cringing inwardly, "use your _charm._"

Her eyes widened at his suggestion. He suppressed a grimace. Still, it wasn't far from the truth. He'd flirted with her to get what he wanted out of the situation—now it was her turn.

"Here I go," she said, straightening her shoulders.

Thorne listened to her approach the guard and begin chatting him up. To his surprise, Elanora was an _accomplished_ flirt, hitting on him almost the same way Thorne would have. It was uncanny—like she'd studied his moves and memorized them.

_Touché, Elanora._

In no time, Thorne heard Elanora ask about something on the other end of the hallway, giving him the time to dart by to an unmanned elevator bank that would lead him to LW-16's corridors. He added points to Elanora's imaginary score for completing the task quicker than probably even he could have done.

He needed her for at least one more part of his plan, so he hoped she'd actually manage to finish with the guard. Why shouldn't he let her pass, though, when she was just an intern who had clearance to be on the premises?

She did not disappoint him. Ten minutes later, Elanora found him crouched behind a statue not far from room LW-16. It was dark inside, which was both good and bad. Good because it meant that it was most likely vacant, bad because it could also mean they'd already removed the evidence. He hoped not.

"Do they give you a well-rounded education at MiB Academy in Australia?" he asked Elanora.

"In what way?"

"Have you already had your unit in technology systems?" _And hacking_, he added silently.

"We completed three units," she said.

"Excellent. We're going to enter that room and examine the secret netscreens I told you about. I'll evaluate how quickly you can get past the password protection. Of course, since this is a fake case, you'll receive some background information from me to help you."

It was a long shot, he knew it. Elanora could be total crap when it came to figuring out passwords, but there was no way that she could be worse than him.

Though he'd enjoyed his technology systems unit, Thorne relied heavily on the tech agents to do the technological work for him now that he was a field agent. When that failed, communication with Nainsi and other androids employed by MiB were crucial to missions. Kai relied on them as much as he did, though Wolf and Jacin had received better marks in that area and, frankly, honed their skills more.

They were all rubbish compared to the tech agents, though. But really, what was the point in having tech agents at all if not to do their job? They didn't go out on the field like he did.

Elanora swiped her wrist again, incriminating her and not Thorne. He ducked his head down, knowing that the over-sized black hoodie he'd donned over his suit jacket would make him less recognizable in the overhead cameras. He'd watched many, many feeds from the control room before and knew all the habits that gave agents trouble identifying suspects.

"Wow," said Elanora, observing the room as Thorne let the door slide shut behind them with a faint _click_. He tightened the hood around his face. "You guys really went all out for this."

Thorne opened his mouth to respond, but blinked in surprise instead. Kai's pictures hadn't lied—it was like the room in front of him was littered with netscreens. And fading in and out on each one of them was—

"Wait," said Elanora. "Is that you?"

Thorne masked his emotions with a cocky grin. "It's a good picture, isn't it?" He strode past her. "It works for our purpose here."

"What's the purpose?"

"You've trailed a Lunar for a specific period of time. You finally find their hiding spot, but it's vacant, save these netscreens." Thorne pointed at the one in front of Elanora. "When you try to access them, you're met with this screensaver." He paused, rolling his eyes for effect. "Obviously, it'd be something different, but we needed to use something that you would recognize and be able to work with for this mission. Now, the background details that will help you break in is that the Lunar is a young woman, about twenty-six years old, registered and never stepped a toe out of line before. But you've discovered she's hacked into MiB encrypted data and may be working for a Lunar crime boss. What do you think?"

Elanora tapped a finger to her chin several times, thinking. "I want to find the data she's looked at."

"Good," said Thorne, relieved that she wasn't asking more questions about his fake-but-actually-true story. "Why?"

"Maybe that data would lead us to the crime boss. Or give us a clue as to why the Lunar wants MiB information."

"Good," Thorne affirmed again. Then he stepped behind Elanora and hoped he'd made the right choice using her. Perhaps between the two of them they could access at least some of Cress's information, or at least what the rest of MiB already knew so he could be in the loop. "Get started. You have three minutes to hack in before you're caught."

"Three minutes!?" Elanora scrambled into the seat in front of the largest netscreen. She hit a key to get rid of the screensaver, but a large red X appeared on the screen over Thorne's face. Then, text scrolled onto his forehead:

_Cannot log in. Password attempted too many times. Override code requested._

Thorne ripped Elanora's hand off the keypad. "Wait!"

If they were getting this message, then MiB _hadn't _already logged in successfully. If they entered the wrong password now, it would lock them out completely—maybe even shut down the system and burn any helpful files. But maybe, if Cress didn't have that type of security on her computer...maybe it would only lock them out...and then he could see if Elanora's three units were sufficient for his purposes. If MiB tech agents couldn't break in, though, he highly doubted it. His confidence dwindled slightly.

"Looks like the guys have upped the stakes for you," he said, more nonchalantly this time. "You only get one chance to crack the code."

"That's not fair," said Elanora.

Thorne raised an eyebrow. "Not fair? That's spy life, darling." He regretted his words when Elanora beamed at him. He didn't mean _darling_ darling—nevermind, there was no point in arguing that now. Hadn't he already called her darling before anyway? He couldn't recall.

"I need more information," she said. "I can't attempt an override code without knowing more information."

Thorne frowned. "What information do you need?"

"Tell me about this supposed girl. If I were trailing her, I'd know everything about her profile. What information did your team send you?"

Thorne held up his portscreen for show and pretended to scroll for the made-up profile. He quickly gave Elanora her basic stats, including height, weight, DOB, eye color, hair color, body type, and blood type. He told her when Cress had arrived in New Beijing, when they'd last seen her, where her favorite places to hang out were. He added that she worked at a flower shop. Elanora only shook her head at everything he told her.

"But they put this picture up," she finally said.

"Who?"

"Your _team_."

"Oh, right. Of course. Just a joke, obviously."

"Why is it a joke?"

"Well," said Thorne, choosing his words carefully, "in this scenario, the guys thought it'd be funny to have the persona they created have a, um...massive crush on me."

Elanora's gaze returned to the screensaver of him winking. "Hmm. Can I see her data?"

"No," said Thorne. "Sometimes you have to trust your teammates to provide you with accurate information."

"Okay. Are you dating her in this scenario?"

"No," Thorne lied.

"So the screensaver is obviously connected."

Thorne shrugged. "Tell me why."

"If a woman has a screensaver of someone she's not dating on all of her many netscreens, she's probably a stalker, or at minimum, super obsessed with her crush. I think it's a hint from your team. They must have picked this screensaver in order for me to make that connection, otherwise how else would I figure out how to get in?"

"That's an interesting observation," he said, not thinking it was a hint at all. His team wouldn't hypothetically do something so obvious if they were really trying to give Elanora a clue, nor could he tell her that the screensaver wasn't even a clue at all. But his mind was already going along a different train of thought anyway, mulling over her words about Cress.

He was dating Cress—sort of—so surely that made Cress much less of a stalker than Elanora made her out to be. He had slept in her _bed_, for stars sake. Brought her flowers. Even snuck into the showing of one of her favorite films. She wanted to be his girlfriend; she'd made that point very clear from the start. Cress didn't have a crush on some _random_ person she didn't know.

"What's her name?"

"Cress," said Thorne absentmindedly. "Her full name is Crescent Darnel. She doesn't like that though."

"And your name is Thorne," she mused. "That's your last name?"

"As far as this Lunar knows," he replied.

Elanora hesitated, her face scrunched up in thought."I think I've got it."

"Wait," said Thorne, but it was too late. He grimaced when Elanora pressed enter before he had a chance to stop her. Ready to scold her for working too quickly, Thorne all but threw up with nerves while the netscreen blinked in response to Elanora's password. This was his only chance. Why had he bothered with this intern? What was wrong with—

_Override code accepted._

His knees almost buckled. "W-what password did you use?" he stuttered, then clamped his mouth shut. Agent T did _not_ stutter.

Elanora looked up at him with a proud smirk. "Crescent Thorne," she replied.

"Wha—"

"Women like to pretend they're married to their crushes."

Thorne steadied himself on the back of Elanora's chair. Cress's password included his _surnam_e? Cress wanted to _marry_ him?

It—

What—

How—

It was a trap. MiB tech agents would have figured this out, wouldn't they? His team was onto him. The joke was on him.

"Now what?"

Thorne pushed aside his thoughts shakily and jumped to action, snapping his fingers at Elanora, reminiscent of how Rikan always commanded them. "Now you stand guard while your teammate checks out the data. The captain of the team always does that," he lied, pointing to himself.

"Okay," said Elanora, hurrying out the chair.

"Agent J likes to send diversions," he said, sitting down and staring at the desktop picture, which at least wasn't an image stolen from MiB. Rather, it was a close-up that Cress had taken of the two of them lying in bed together on a Sunday morning when he'd been off duty—not long after that fateful day in the flower shop. She'd sworn not to show the incriminating photo to anyone.

His throat grew chalky the more he looked at it. "More than likely they'll have at least one or two agents walk down the corridor. Your job is to distract them until I come out of this room."

"Should I flirt again?"

"You can't solve every situation by flirting, Elanora. Figure out what to do as it comes up," he snapped, his patience growing thin.

He needed to see what Cress was up to now. And the space between him and Elanora was too small, too cramped, with Cress's picture lingering in front of them.

Softening his voice, he added, "This is the point of the fake mission."

"That picture looks real," she said.

He forced himself not to glare. "Would we be the elite team if we didn't know how to manipulate fake evidence?"

"Right. I'll just…be outside then."

"Be on guard. Remember what I said about Agent J. Do not let anyone enter."

"I won't, Agent T. I promise."

Once she'd left the room, Thorne let out a punctured breath. He swiped at the screen, daring his hands to shake one more time. He needed to remain calm and collected.

Like an actual agent.

He opened folder after folder, which didn't have anything interesting. Then, inside a folder called PERSONAL there was another folder called AGENT C.

He opened it immediately, then closed his eyes before he could look. He couldn't un-see whatever this folder contained. There would be no going back. Deciding he couldn't undo his past choices anyway, he opened his eyes.

His brows drew together.

The files inside were mostly photos of him and Cress.

In…matching MiB outfits?

Most of the photos he recognized as ones that she had taken of the two of them on her portscreen. Each one had been altered to have Cress matching Thorne's suits, wearing her own pair of shades.

One file was a news article, detailing the heroics of "Agent C and Agent T." It was obviously fake—most of the "story" was actually just sample text used when someone was choosing a font for their portscreen. He tried to wrap his mind around what he was seeing, but found himself grasping to understand the full meaning.

So Cress wanted to be…an agent? His partner? His..._wife_?

No, he had no proof that she wanted to be his wife, only the whims of Elanora while she'd contemplated Cress's password. When panic seized him again at the thought, he flew through more photos and, with some relief, discovered that there were no edited photos of them dressed up in wedding clothes.

He thought about the last time he'd seen Cress, her words echoing in his mind: _I can help. I can find her_.

He'd brushed her off and settled on lecturing her about not attempting to catch Lunars on her own.

_If we were together_, she'd said, _it wouldn't be on my own_.

He swallowed hard, swiping back through the photos of Cress in agent clothes. A few days ago, he would've found the sight of her dressed this way extraordinarily sexy. Now, it formed a knot in his stomach.

Thorne fisted his hands in his hair, his face flushing with unease. She _had_ to be a spy like everyone else thought. She worked for some tertiary agency and had planted all this information for him to find, and that was it. She had_ not_ gone after Sybil Mira herself. There was no way. Absolutely not.

He closed the folder and pulled up another. There was a knock from outside the door but he ignored it, working as quickly as he could, telling his heart to stop racing. Agent T's heart did not race.

There was only one folder left, the one called FLOWERS, which he had ignored until this point. Since there were no other files he could locate, he finally tapped it. Hundreds of flower types popped up as names of new folders, and Thorne knew he'd never make it through all of them. Elanora would grow suspicious.

As he was getting ready to close it again, his eyes snagged on one folder:

_THORNES_

He read it again, thinking he'd just replaced the real spelling—thorns—with his own surname. But his eyes hadn't betrayed him.

_THORNES_

Deciding it couldn't be a coincidence and that this would be absolute proof that Cress was actually a spy and had no desire to be his wife nor join MiB, he clicked on it with relief.

The relief vanished when he saw that inside the folder was another one named _AGENT C + AGENT T._

He groaned, dragged a hand down his face, and then plugged in an external chip to download what he was seeing. The folder was filled with information on his latest MiB case, including Rikan's detailed briefing to Kai, Wolf, Jacin, and Thorne about their mission to capture Sybil Mira.

There was also note file dated from the night of her kidnapping with comments such as:

_"Why did Thorne have bruises?"  
"Sybil Mira working with Aimery Park - bad."  
"He needs help finding Sybil!"  
"Can leave a note with Sybil's comm info at his house? He'll be mad?"_

It also listed Sybil Mira's _direct_ communication number and last known whereabouts—the same warehouse where one of their wattage grids had shown glamour activity but turned up vacant when they'd arrived.

There was another knock on the door. Thorne pulled out the chip and logged out of the netscreen, jumping up and adjusting his hood for good measure.

Elanora grinned proudly at him before her face fell. "Your face is ashen."

"It's just the lighting in here. Come on, let's move."

He grabbed her by the elbow and began to run down the hallway with her as silently as possible. He would process the information he'd learned later. First he had to get rid of Elanora somehow.

"There were three agents who came by," she whispered as they ran. "_Three_!"

"Did any of them ask why you were there?"

"Only one. The others passed by me as if I didn't even exist!"

"Great job," he mouthed, barely paying any attention. He took a sharp right, but skidded to a halt by two large potted ferns. "Wait here," he said, pulling her with him to hide behind the plants.

Two agents passed them without notice. He was about to take Elanora by the arm again when he heard familiar voices down the hallway.

"Can't believe she wasn't there _again_!"

"I told you that little Lunar would remove her registration chip."

"Rikan is _pissed_. We shouldn't have bothered with that girl."

"It's the tech agents' fault. He can blame them."

It was his team. Coming back from their mission. And Elanora was right there with him and would see them any second now if she hadn't already recognized them and—

There was only one way.

He turned abruptly and gripped Elanora's waist with one hand, the other flying to her face. Pulling her flush against him, she gasped once before his mouth was on hers. He let his hand fall into her hair almost recklessly, kissing her with as much passion as he could conjure up. To his relief, he found he had not misinterpreted her glances. She clung to his hoodie like her life depended on it, kissing him with need and hunger. He stopped only to inhale for the briefest moment, then continued, wishing the girl he was kissing was blonde and short and Lunar.

When the voices had faded, he pulled apart and gave her a cocky smile. "I've been wanting to do that all night."

She looked at him in awe, her skin flushed all the way down to her neck. She didn't let go of his hoodie. "You're…I…wow…" she stuttered.

"I know," he said, plucking a fern leaf off of his hoodie. "And now that that's done, let's keep moving. The mission isn't over yet."

He grabbed her hand and ran down the hallway again with Elanora in tow, hoping he could leave the guys and his guilt as far behind him as possible.

Thorne wasn't ready to leave MiB headquarters yet, though.

First he had ditch the intern. Then he had to cut out his trackers. The one behind his ear would be particularly painful, but he couldn't risk anyone tailing him, not when they had clearly received orders from Rikan to abandon Cress.

Thorne needed more time to think about what her Agent C files and photos meant. He needed more time to grapple with why her password was _Crescent Thorne_. And he even needed more time to understand why he'd felt such a sharp pang of want for Cress in his chest while he'd kissed Elanora, despite all the new information he'd learned about her today.

No, the fate of Cress Darnel would not rest in Sybil Mira's hands. He alone would decide how to deal with her, once he got her back.

And that meant he had an Amplifier to steal.


	12. Chapter 12

Stealing the Amplifier was a joke.

Once this entire debacle was over, Thorne would make sure to tell his team just how unprotected the object really was. They were unlikely to believe him, because every time he mentioned how stupid it was that it was even being kept at headquarters, he got death glares from a top-level MiB admin.

It had only taken him ten minutes and the hardest part had been putting together a makeshift rope that let him descend into the vault without setting off any alarms. Since he had been part of the team that had recovered the Amplifier, he knew exactly where it was located, who guarded it, and when their rotations ended. With Elanora anchoring him from above, he found that—to his delight and utter frustration—his MiB-certified lock-breaker worked on the first try of opening the protective case.

Of course, these types of lock-breakers were only issued to the top agents entrusted with the most classified missions, and why would they suspect someone like that to steal the Amplifier?

He wasn't stealing, though, not really. He was just going to borrow the Amplifier for safe keeping until he managed to kill Sybil, get Cress into custody, and then spend the rest of his evening interrogating her. Then, depending on her answers, he hoped to spend a long time _playing _interrogation instead.

And a lot depended on her answers. She had lied to him. Betrayed him. Possibly created a secret folder somewhere else with all of their non-existent future babies.

He gave a tug of the rope to let Elanora know he was ready for her to pull him up.

He high-fived her when he reached the top of the chute. "Excellent work as usual. You completed this task even better than some of the seasoned agents I work with from time to time."

To his dismay, she tried to kiss him again.

MiB training had not prepared him to deal with ditching Elanora. Seducing someone as a distraction was the oldest trick in the book and usually the first scenario of deception that agents were taught at the Academy. Nobody bothered to prep the agents for the scenario in which the seduced someone had received the exact same Academy training.

Especially when she wasn't _aware_ that she was that seduced someone. Trying to get rid of Elanora after kissing her was like trying to get dried blood out of his suit after a particularly bad mission. It just wasn't happening. Which was precisely why he'd decided it was better to keep her around just a little longer and use for all she was worth.

It had certainly made taking the Amplifier easier. But now, even if he did manage to get rid of her, there was nothing stopping her gushing, happy self from running straight to his team and ruining everything. He had to mask the fact that her continued presence was irritating the aces out of him.

While Thorne brushed off her advances with the raise of a seductive eyebrow and a drawled "Later, darling," he recalculated his moves.

"That was such a rush," said Elanora, her fingers finding his for the umpteenth time. He squeezed her hand assuredly in the way he had all the other times before dropping his hand just as quickly.

"Indeed. And now we need a celebratory drink, don't you think?"

Her eyes widened with happiness. "You mean…?"

"I said 'Later, darling,' didn't I?"

He caught her nervous swallow even as her head bobbed with enthusiasm. He should probably volunteer to teach the MiB lesson on seduction after this was over.

As he hurried her along the secret corridors again to yet another alternate exit, he thanked his lucky stars for all the Lunars out there who were currently creating enough problems to keep the agents away from MiB headquarters.

When they felt fresh air and Elanora hugged him—before just as quickly letting go and trying to straighten professionally—Thorne contemplated what kind of person Elanora would be once she found out that he had used her. He hadn't been lying to her when he'd said she was talented, and he wondered how her skills would help her get revenge as a scorned lover.

He would think about that later.

"Your house or mine?" he said, slinging an arm over her with a grin.

"Y-yours is fine," she said, her cheeks warming.

"Perfect."

* * *

Elanora's nerves filled him with a guilt he was having trouble assuaging. When he sat down next to her on the bed and offered her a glass of wine, her hands shook so much that he nearly called the whole thing off.

He wanted to tell her that she was too star stuck, too amazed that he would lavish his attention on her. That she was a sweet girl and deserved someone who would dote on her in ways that she probably couldn't imagine yet. And that she should run, because he was bad news, and people got hurt because of things he did.

That spy life meant a solitary life.

If he would have just told Cress those things then he wouldn't be here taking advantage of an innocent young woman.

But an agent had to think about his mission first, before anything else.

And with his mission in mind, he took a sip of wine and tucked a strand of Elanora's hair behind her ear. Elanora drew in a breath and set her wine on the nightstand, its contents splashing upward from her shaky hands.

"We could always just watch a drama or play a round of Royals," he offered, knowing the statement alone would set her mind at ease.

Elanora smiled warmly as expected, then threw her arms around his neck. He let her kiss him, let her entertain the fantasy, then pushed her back down on the covers. He took charge, bringing her hands up and overhead, letting her lace her fingers through his. She smiled against his lips, and he thought he might be sick, but he continued kissing her, opening his eyes to check that hers were closed.

_Click._

She opened her eyes, but not quickly enough.

_Click._

Before she could formulate any alternative ideas about what his plans for the evening were, he rolled off her immediately and stood up. "I'm sorry, Elanora," he said. "This was never about you."

Elanora blinked at him, then up at the way she was handcuffed to the bedpost, her dark eyes still recovering from desire and slowly beginning to fill with confusion and worry.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he said quickly. "Something's happened, Elanora, and I need you to stay here. For your own safety. When it's over, I'll come back and explain everything. I promise."

She pulled down hard on the metal around her wrist. "Let me go, Thorne."

"I can't."

He had expected her to cry, but her face gave away nothing but betrayal. She began to twist frantically on the bed, trying to escape. When she remained stuck, she gritted her teeth. "Let me go! I trusted you!"

"I know."

Thorne turned his back on her, and only when he was facing his closet did he close his eyes for a brief moment. Kissing her had been the biggest mistake he'd made all day. There was no cut and dry way to get out of this situation. He couldn't risk letting her go and alerting anyone at MiB to what he was up to. But he also couldn't let her go afterward without her either attempting to kill him or telling MiB that he'd basically kept her hostage.

He had not thought this through at all.

Once he had regained his composure, he rummaged around for something else to bind her other hand. Deciding on a long sheet, he emerged to find her sitting up on the bed, working to free herself.

"Please don't make me tie your legs too," he said when she attempted to kick him in the balls.

Glowering now, she watched him tie her other wrist tightly to the same bedpost, keeping a bit stiller than before.

"Do you want a blanket?"

When she didn't respond, he got her one anyway and set it beside her. She could put it over herself with her legs if she got cold. Then he pressed one of the buttons on the panel above the headboard and ejected the breakfast tray. He took the wine and set it on top of the tray. He left the room momentarily, only to return with a big glass of water, some bread, and two straws.

"In case you get hungry or thirsty," he said. He stepped back to observe her, then decided to move the breakfast tray closer so that she could reach the food and drink without bending her head too much.

"I'll be back in a few hours to let you go," he said. "I'm…I'm really sorry."

He slid the door shut behind him before she could say something to change his mind. He entered the lock code on the door for good measure, and headed to the kitchen to find a knife.

The pain he felt while cutting out his trackers didn't make him feel any better.

* * *

Sybil Mira had not updated her comm number since Cress had written it down in her hacked notes about Thorne's mission. In fact, Thorne only had to wait one ring until she answered using the audio option only.

"Mira," said Thorne. "I believe I have something from MiB that you've requested."

"Agent T," cooed Sybil. "I was beginning to think you'd left MiB in pursuit of another career. You didn't show up on camera at the latest decoys I planted for your team."

"Some of us had work to do."

"I'm so happy to hear that. Do you have my Amplifier?"

Thorne's fingers closed around it in his pocket. "Of course."

"Let me speak with Aimery to confirm it."

"Aimery's not part of this deal."

"Then we don't have a deal."

"An Amplifier in exchange for one agent sounds like a pretty good deal for you. But I guess if you're too worried about your boyfriend, I'll just bring this little device right back to MiB headquarters."

He heard Sybil suck in a breath on the other end of the line. If she didn't accept the offer, he had nothing more to trade. "And your team?"

"In the dark."

There was a long silence, but when Sybil spoke again, he was sure she was smiling. "And I'm to believe you're going rogue for one agent? Are you really that desperate to see her again?"

Thorne looked up at Luna, gleaming brilliantly despite the city's lights. "You didn't expect anyone to take the deal."

"I'm delighted to learn that you've defied my expectations."

Thorne growled. "The Amplifier for the girl. Do we have a deal or not?'

There was another pause, then: "Meet me on the Haifo Bridge over the Yongding in thirty minutes. Come alone. If I even get a hint of MiB activity other than your own, I'll make sure you watch while I kill the girl slowly myself. And you know I'll still get my hands on the Amplifier anyway."

Thorne hung up on her before she could trace the call back to his current location.

* * *

The Haifo Bridge was rickety and unstable, abandoned years ago as a means of pedestrian travel when wind storm after wind storm had battered back any attempts at reconstruction. Looking down at the Yongding River from the edge, all turbulent and dark, it was easy to see why Sybil had chosen this spot for the exchange. The way the river crashed against the walls that tried to contain it would make it too difficult for anyone nearby to overhear, and the rickety spirals of the bridge would keep anyone from wanting to interfere.

Thorne waited at the edge of the bridge, not afraid to cross, but unwilling to go to the middle where he would be more exposed. It was unlikely that Sybil Mira came with good intentions.

He took the Glamour Blockers out of his pockets and tied two each around his ankles, attached three to his belt, stashed another one in each pocket, and clipped two to the back of his collar. The one in his wrist had been the most powerful, but it was left blinking silently in his apartment attached to his tracker. He threw his tie over the edge of the bridge and watched it flutter down and disappear before it hit the roaring water. If things escalated to a fight, he didn't want it slapping him in the face from the wind.

His shades detected activity on the other side of the bridge. Four short ticks of glamour upward, two ticks downward, then a slow tick up.

_Cress._

The signal she always used to communicate with him repeated itself. His heart ticked right along with her waves of glamour. She was still alive!

He strained through the wind to see better across the bridge. Then there was a sudden wave of glamour so high that his wattage meter ticked into the red. He stumbled back from the intensity of it against the black night. Then, he could see her.

Sybil Mira.

She was wearing a high-collared long coat that flared out at the waist, exaggerated due to the amount of wind. Her raven hair billowed just as much. Behind her, she was flanked by two men. One of them was practically dragging Cress behind him.

He swallowed hard as he adjusted the size of his wattage meter inside his shades to as small as possible. It had started going crazy, lighting up with yellow and blue and red, making the arrow within the meter dive all over the place.

He knew Sybil clearly had no intention of letting him walk out of here alive. But what was the point of being an agent if he didn't defy the impossible from time to time? Dying was not on the agenda tonight.

And giving up the Amplifier to a mass murderer certainly wasn't either.

Thorne tightened the hold on the gun in his pocket and strode forward, determined to let her think that everything was business as usual.

They stopped within ten meters of each other.

Sybil gestured to the man behind her who was holding Cress, and snapped her fingers. The man dropped Cress at her feet the next instant, which almost made him shoot Sybil right then and there. But he had seen powerful Lunars defend themselves against bullets before—they could easily manipulate unsuspecting Earthens into jumping in front of them and taking the hit. Did he want to risk it, if one of these men happened to be Earthen?

"Looks like someone wanted you after all, Crescent," said Sybil. "Though I'm not sure why." Fixing her steely eyes on Thorne, she said, "Are you familiar with Crescent's history on Luna?"

Caught off guard by the question, a "no" slipped out unintentionally.

Sybil's lips curled into a vicious grin. "No? Allow me to enlighten you. Crescent and I have become quite acquainted in the last few hours we've spent together. She was abandoned as child, did you know that? Not even her own _parents_ could stand to be around her. And then she came to Earth because—"

"I know why she came to Earth," Thorne lied. He needed Sybil to stop talking. He knew talking was just stalling in these situations.

"And look how much good that has done. She's betrayed her own kind and for what? Only to be abandoned again by the people who she thought would accept her. Since you've come alone, it's clear the agency has rejected her. And why_ would _they want to risk anything to save a wretched Lunar traitor such as her? Any Earthen can be taught to hack into networks."

"That's enough," said Thorne sternly. He had never bothered to think about how a Lunar might react if one of their own kind joined MiB, because the idea of it was so absurd. The divide between the planet and the moon had always been absolute.

"She's a weak-minded, untalented Lunar with hardly any strength left to her gift. Lunars have to use their glamour to make it strong, you know, and you've allowed your agent to run around with one of your chips all these years. It's clear that your agency never planned to keep her around." Sybil sneered. "Since I've seen the video footage of you two together, it's clear someone like her must have only one thing to offer you, Agent T, and I assure you, it would be much more pleasurable with someone less _pathetic_."

One of the men at her side barked out a laugh, but Thorne's eyes drifted down to Cress. She had been sending him repeats of her standard glamour message throughout Sybil's discourse, but they stopped when the bite of Sybil's insult weighed down on her. She looked away from him to hide the onset of silent tears.

"What do you care so long as I hold up my end of the bargain?"

"My queen was quite interested to learn this new development of your agency's interests in our people," Sybil said. "Using the Shells as lab rats for your technology wasn't enough, I see."

Thorne let out a bored snort. "Fake sympathy wasn't part of our arrangement, Mira. If your queen took better care of her people, we wouldn't have to deal with your people even on our planet."

Sybil's eyes narrowed. "And yet you've taken up with one."

"If I find it amusing to entertain myself with a Lunar, that's my business."

Cress gasped, but he didn't make eye contact with her, keeping his gaze split between Sybil and the way the wattage meter was progressively ticking higher and higher. Thorne was glad for his decision to arm himself with as many extra Glamour Blockers as possible. He didn't have much time.

"Let 'im have his way wit' her," said the same man who had laughed, spitting in Cress's direction. "She ain't no use to us, Mistress."

Thorne raised an eyebrow. "Keep damaging my goods and I might just put a dent in yours."

Sybil frowned. "Let's see it."

"What's to keep us from killing each other once we have what we want?" said Thorne, leaving his hand in his pocket.

"You mean you don't trust me, Agent T?"

"As much as you trust me."

"Fair enough." Sybil jerked Cress up to her feet. Thorne wondered if she would blow away in the wind if Sybil wasn't holding on to her so tightly. "Kinney, Stanish, drop your weapons as a show of good will."

Guns clattered to the ground.

"Your turn, Agent."

Thorne threw his gun haphazardly to the ground. He was sure everyone was just as aware as he that they all carried back-up weapons.

Nonetheless, he accepted Sybil's _show of good will_ and decided to give one of his own. He reached hesitantly into his pocket again and twirled the device around in his hand. "It's just the Amplifier," he said quickly when Sybil pulled Cress more tightly in front of her.

He held up both hands, showing that one was free, and that the other contained the pen-like device. He twirled it around again. "It would be a real shame if this just"—he made a show of nearly dropping the Amplifier and Sybil gasped—"fell into the Yongding."

"Don't play games. You would be dead before it hit the water."

Thorne shrugged. "I want my Lunar. You want the Amplifier. This should be fairly simple, so maybe you can explain why we're still standing here."

"I'll go get it, Mistress," said the man called Stanish.

"Not a chance," Sybil hissed. "I'll make the exchange myself. You keep watch in case he attempts something untoward."

Sybil began to walk forward with Cress, who looked terrified at the thought of joining Thorne. Her hands were still bound behind her back, but the way her feet almost glided across the rickety bridge made Thorne wonder if Sybil wasn't glamouring Cress into complacency.

Thorne closed the gap to meet them halfway, moving carefully over some of the ripped pieces of the bridge floor. When they stopped right in front of each other, Thorne had every desire to pull out his second gun and shoot Sybil. But with two men behind her, he or Cress would be dead before he even got in a hit.

"The Amplifier," said Sybil.

"The girl," said Thorne.

"Don't do it, Thorne!" said Cress desperately.

Sybil clapped a hand over her mouth. "The Amplifier first."

Grudgingly, Thorne held out his hand, palms up, revealing the device. Sybil snatched it up greedily, and pushed Cress away from her—towards the edge of the bridge. Cress screamed and stumbled. Thorne dove for her, catching her by the shirt before she could go over.

The second he caught her, he wanted to pull her close. But they needed to get out of there—fast. He struggled to get her binds off when he noted that Sybil was actually retreating towards her men.

"I'd be careful about turning that on," Thorne shouted to her as he continued with Cress's binds. "You'll alert every agent in the Eastern Commonwealth of your presence just by lighting that up for a second. Your choice, of course."

Sybil turned back to him. "If I turn it on, I'll be unstoppable."

"That's what the last Lunar who used it said before MiB captured him," Thorne shouted. "But turn it on then, and see what happens." He grabbed Cress's arm as soon as it was free and began to guide her carefully back across the bridge. It was a hard feat with one eye trained on Sybil and the other permanently in his pocket, holding his gun.

The meter in his sunglasses began to tick upward again—fast. Sybil was using her glamour and attempting to use the Amplifier.

"Thorne!" said Cress, stopping dead in her tracks.

"What?" he said irritably just as a bullet whizzed by his ear.

Swearing, he flattened himself over Cress on the ground and pulled out his weapon to shoot at—

"_Elanora?"_ said Thorne, his throat going dry, his finger halting on the trigger instinctively. How had she escaped? How had she followed him here? Had she tried to shoot Sybil and missed?

"Hello, Agent T," said Elanora coolly, her gun pointed straight at him now. A single handcuff dangled from her wrist. "Having fun without me?" Then she called out, "Sybil! He cheated you! That's not the real Amplifier!"

Thorne rolled, taking Cress with him, and shot at Elanora. She ducked expertly, just like an agent trained to dodge bullets. In the two seconds that it took Thorne to scramble to his feet, shove Cress behind him, and take more shots at Elanora, Sybil and her cronies had sprinted back to them, guns pointing.

"Out of shape, Agent T?" said Sybil. "Or are you just the weak link in a team that didn't bother showing up?"

He pointed his gun straight at her heart, though four guns pointed back at him. He was not out of shape, he was merely not used to having to protect a second party while he protected himself too. _This was why he didn't want Cress on the field with him_, he mentally screamed at her.

"Using a MiB trainee undercover for your own purposes, Mira. You come up with that all on your own or was it your pathetic _queen_?"

Kinney made a move but Sybil held up her hand. "Wait. The Earthen says the agent cheated us. We might need him alive to extract information."

"I saw the real Amplifier when he stole it," said Elanora, her eyes wild. "It has one of those Lunar shiny gems on it."

Thorne snorted. "'_One of those Lunar shiny gems_.' Nice, Elanora. Clearly your new buddies have shared a _lot_ of information with you."

"More than you did while you were trying to get in my pants."

Behind him, he felt Cress bristle.

"Aw, your girlfriend's upset, Thorne. Has it been too long since you've tied her to a bed?"

He scowled. "And to think I felt bad for using you."

"Enough chit chat," said Sybil. "Where's the real Amplifier, Agent T?"

Thorne shrugged lazily. "Gave it to you."

"That's not it!" said Elanora.

"You really think we'd keep the Amplifier in its original state so that someone like you can easily identify it? I switched out the case while you were probably busy crying about how you failed your Mistress. Was that part of your big plan, Elanora?"

"I was busy using the broken wine glass to cut loose your binds so I could track you and make sure you completed your task."

"_You_ completed _my_ tasks."

"That's what I let you believe. I'd already hacked into her netscreen before you even created a fake mission. You were so shocked by her obsession with you that you didn't even bother to think that it was too easy." Elanora batted her eyes and put on a saccharine voice. "Girls like to pretend they're married to their crushes, Thorne."

Behind him, Cress began to cry. The same panic he'd felt at hearing that line the first time didn't come back, though. He faced Sybil again. "Congratulations, you successfully used an Earthen to your advantage. This will go down in history as a new feat for Lunars."

Sybil's eyes narrowed into slits, but with her hair whipping into her face, it was hard to take her glare seriously. Thorne silently cheered that he'd thrown his tie into the water before meeting her.

"I promised you I'd make you watch me kill your girl if you betrayed me. And that's what I'm going to do if you don't drop your weapon."

He couldn't see Cress behind him, but he knew that there was nowhere for her to run with how he'd positioned them. "All right," he said. "I'll put down my weapon. But if you hurt Cress you'll never find out where the real Amplifier is."

"Maybe I'll just kill you instead," said Sybil.

"If you were going to kill me, you would have done it by now, honey," said Thorne, adding as much condescension into his voice as possible as he laid the gun on the ground.

Sybil fired her weapon. A bullet embedded itself in Thorne's right thigh. Cress screamed. The pain forced him to his knees.

"Perhaps," said Sybil, "but I might let you bleed out if you don't tell me where the Amplifier is. Or should I let your girl bleed out?" She pointed the gun at Cress, and Thorne had enough sense to jump up before she fired again. The bullet pierced through his right shoulder.

He swore and doubled over.

It was over. Sybil was going to kill them both.

_"Tell me where the Amplifier is, Agent T." _

He could never tell her where the real Amplifier was. It was as Kai had said: one person was not worth cities of massacres. Sybil cocked her gun.

"Okay, okay. You called my bluff," he said, finding it hard to talk at all. He _was_ bleeding out. "Just—just let me say goodbye first." Without waiting for a reply, he turned on one knee to face Cress. If she shot him again it wouldn't matter, anyway. He was already as good as dead, so he might as well try to save one of them.

Her face was an ashen reflection of her former home. "I'm so sorry, Cress," he said, pulling her to his chest with one arm and guiding her hand into his front breast pocket at the same time.

Where the real Amplifier was.

He gave her hand a squeeze to try to make her understand. Then he pushed his luck by allowing himself a quick kiss. The warmth of her lips spread over him like a song. He breathed out a sigh at the momentarily relief from his wounds. Pulling away, he whispered, "You're still….you're still the prettiest girl I know."

"For a Lunar," she said, a fresh tear falling down her cheek.

He laughed and squeezed her hand harder. "Today I couldn't be happier that you're a Lunar."

Meeting her blue eyes for just a split second longer, he turned back to face Sybil and her pawns. He hoped Cress could turn on the Amplifier and get it going without Sybil noticing, but she was a natural at detecting bioelectricity. It was unfair that Lunars had their own types of wattage grids embedded within their anatomy.

"Wasn't that charming?" said Sybil dryly. "You better start talking. The next shot will be a fatal one. Whether it goes to you or her is up to you."

Thorne nodded. "I'm ready to tell you," he said slowly, trying to think of what obscure location would make enough sense to buy Cress enough time. But he heard a familiar noise in the distance, and suddenly, his confidence returned. _His team_. "Tsk, tsk, tsk, you shouldn't have played with your glamour this whole time, Mira." He tapped his shades with the hand of his uninjured arm. "Everyone knows you're here now."

She glanced to the right as a hover approached the bridge. That was all it took.

With a yell of pain, Thorne threw himself at Sybil. She shot at him, but the bullet went over his shoulder, hitting Elanora instead. Thorne flipped Sybil over so she blocked him from the two men. His shades and her gun clattered to the ground.

He didn't know where Cress was—if she was even still alive—but Thorne continued his fight with Sybil. He kept her pinned to him with his uninjured leg wrapped around her thigh. Sybil clawed at his face, his neck, and then, the bullet wound in his shoulder. Somewhere, he thought he heard a scream, but it was covered by the sounds of agony leaving his own lips.

Bullets rained down around them.

More screaming.

Then, a knife.

Piercing his arm.

Over and over.

The blood splattered his face, Sybil's face. His vision began to blur. He could still make out Sybil, the knife, his ruined arm. The knife in his arm stopped slicing into him. Instead, he saw a glint of metal above his chest. He took a shuddering breath and waited for the final stab to his heart.

It didn't come.

Instead, the witch stabbed herself.

Sybil's shriek of pain overwhelmed his senses. She collapsed on top of him. Blood covered both of them so much that he couldn't tell if it was his own or hers.

_Everything's going to be fine_. It was like his own mind was whispering it to him.

"Cress," he mumbled, trying to push Sybil off of his body. He found that he had more strength than he had thought. Something in him was telling him that if he just managed to get up, he would be okay. He had to bandage his wounds. His arm would be fine. The pain wouldn't last. His line of sight focused just a bit.

"Drop your glamour, Lunar!" he heard someone shout.

_Everything's going to be fine._

"Cress," he mumbled again. His body hurt so much.

_No, his body didn't hurt at all. He had to make it to the hover for help._

"Hand over the Amplifier now or you will be killed!" said the same voice again. Jacin?

Thorne managed to get to his feet and teetered.

_That's right, he was going to be fine._

"She's using it now! She's been spying on Thorne all this time!" said Elanora.

Wait, Elanora?

Thorne tried to survey the scene despite his desperate need to walk to the hover. There was Elanora, still standing but injured from her bullet wound. Next to her, in a row, stood Kai, Wolf, and Jacin. They faced Cress, who stood at the edge of the bridge, all of her attention focused only on Thorne.

But this Cress…she looked….like an _angel_. No, a _goddess. A dream. _Was he _dead_?

"She came with Sybil and these two men," said Elanora, her voice scared and nervous. "She attacked us and she's controlling Thorne now. She's trying to _kill_ him. He shouldn't even be able to walk right now."

"I'm going to the hover to get help," said Thorne, but he didn't know where the words had come from.

"Drop your glamour, Lunar!"

Jacin fired a shot, but when the bullet hit the ground by his feet, he stared at his hand as if it had betrayed him.

"Cress…good…" said Thorne dumbly, trying to convince his feet to walk away from the hover and go to her. Why was it so hard to walk?

"Stay back, Thorne!" said Kai.

He heard another hover, heard more shouts. _He had to make it to the hover. He had to find the med kit._

He heard more bullets. Something in his mind snapped free. He shook his head, confused, and the sting of his wounds bit him as if brand new. He saw the guys converge on Cress, and he wanted to help her, meant to help her, but everything in his vision was going out of focus again.

Someone came to stand in front of him. He recognized her brown eyes.

"You're going to die," she whispered. "How does it feel?"

"Elanora," he said, trying not to sway on his feet. He would kill her, he would…

"Yes," she said. "Goodbye, Agent T."

She was grinning. Her hands were on his chest. His feet were tripping backward.

Then there was only wind and air and the roar of rushing water.

A shape flew past him. Fell past him?

It was really over.

The last thing he thought of before the river claimed him was Cress's moon tattoo.


	13. Chapter 13

He was stuck on the bottom of the Yongding.

No matter how much he moved or flailed, his right side wouldn't budge. Something was trapping him, pinning him to the bottom with the weight of an entire sunken ship. He jerked his hip for momentum, but only his pelvis and torso moved.

He was going to die.

It was a cruel twist of fate to survive a fall from the Haifo Bridge, only to get dragged to the bottom by the current of the angry river.

But it didn't matter. He couldn't hold his breath anymore.

Thorne tried one last time to swim away with all his might from whatever was holding on to him, felt something dislocate, and finally gave up.

* * *

"Do you think he's going to rip out a wire again?"

"It's _Thorne_. Do you even need to ask?"

Thorne blinked as laughter filled his ears. He was startled when he had to squint profusely. The brightness of his surroundings overwhelmed his sensations so much that he felt tears fill his eyes. Was he in some sort of afterlife?

He let this thought sink in. He had no pain at all. That was awesome. Definitely a pro. But he couldn't see very well, and his entire body felt like dead weight. But he could wiggle the toes of his left leg, and his left hand moved, only—was it tied down?

What sort of afterlife was this?

"He's awake."

"Wolf?" he said, but came out more like "_Unf?" _His throat was parched.

"Move aside," said another voice he vaguely recognized. It didn't bring him warm and fuzzy feelings the same way hearing Wolf's voice had, and for a moment he thought he might actually be in some sort of hell where the Lunars he'd captured had taken him captive.

"Agent T," said the same voice, this time crisp. "Stop panicking. You are alive and safe."

"Dim the light, he obviously can't see what's going on." _Kai._

The blinding light went out and soon a comforting darkness filled his closed eyelids. He dared to blink…and blink…and blink.

And found himself staring at the bespectacled face of none other than Dr. Erland.

He groaned.

He wasn't dead at all. It was much, much worse. He was being interrogated by Dr. Erland in his creepy lab with his creepy tools and his creepy grins.

Kai was right. The man was a sick sadist.

"Could use a better view," he said, leaning his head back and rolling his tired eyes. "And you might want to consider using a different method of torture. I feel totally fine." Except that he had clearly blacked out and couldn't remember how he got here and half his body was destroyed. Dr. Erland didn't need to know that though.

Dr. Erland snorted, which was an unattractive sound coming from him.

Behind him, Jacin laughed. "Agent T thinks you're interrogating him."

"Thorne, you're fine," said Kai, making Thorne look up skeptically. Kai wouldn't lie to him. "Well, not really fine, but…" He trailed off, avoiding eye contact, and ran a hand through his long hair. Thorne studied his face. Kai had the face of someone who had just woken up the day after a hard mission—dark circles under his eyes and hair unusually wild.

Thorne wrinkled his brow. His head was the only thing that seemed to be functioning freely. "Kai? What—I mean—" Thorne's eyes popped. "Elanora is a traitor! She somehow set this up! And I—I—wait—where's _Cress_?"

Thorne felt a new rush of panic as Kai stuffed his hands his pockets uncertainly. "Dr. Erland?" he said, gesturing at Thorne.

"It's better not to skirt around the issue," said Dr. Erland seriously. "You have been in suspension for nearly two months. When your vitals stabilized, we operated immediately. Then we put you back in suspension temporarily to make the transition less painful. You are now a cyborg, Agent T."

Thorne drew back, wetting his lips, then looked at his body. He was covered in crinkly hospital paper—a gown of some sort. He could only see a glimpse of metal near where his fingertips were supposed to be. He tried to move them.

Nothing happened. It was like he didn't _have _fingers.

"Aces," he said, a sudden fear seizing him. He tried to move his head to look down in the direction of his lap. "Do I still have…um…?"

The guys groaned collectively.

"Your reproductive organs are quite intact," said Dr. Erland, his eyes trailing to the same spot where Thorne was looking.

Thorne wished he hadn't asked.

"The damage, however, was severe. It took multiple surgeries to get everything right, especially with the condition of your shoulder. The stab wounds were so deep that nearly everything connected to it was severed by the time we were able to intervene. You have cybernetic parts from your right pectoral through your fingertips. Your leg might have been salvaged had we been able to reconstruct it sooner, but as you were shot closer to your thigh, either the wound or the impact with the water severed several major arteries. The rest of your limb was replaced as well." Thorne gaped at him in horror, but Dr. Erland continued as if he were just talking about the weather. "It will take some time for you to adjust to these changes. You may find that your balance is off initially."

"Balance?" said Thorne angrily, his mind catching up with the doctor's words. "Balance! You're talking about balance? Guess what, genius? I can't even _feel_ the right side of my body. Only my hip and abs move. You better put me down for another surgery and call a _real_ doctor."

Looking highly affronted, Dr. Erland backed away and muttered something to his team.

"Back me up, guys!" said Thorne, but his voice cracked. He swallowed and wished someone would bring him some water. "And why am I strapped down on my left?" There, he could feel the bindings cutting into him as he squirmed around.

Jacin and Wolf came to the other side of his bed. There was no denying it anymore, even though Thorne wanted to. He was in a bed in MiB's medical clinic. And he, Agent T, was a dysfunctional cyborg lying in one of its beds—the kind reserved for agents that were so badly injured on the job they couldn't go home.

_Two months in a suspension tank._

"You regained consciousness a few days ago," said Wolf. "But you moved around too much and ripped out one of your wires. They had to perform another surgery to reconnect it." He exchanged a look with the guys.

Jacin smirked. "You're tied down so you won't mess up your limbs again."

"We must start out on the proper foot," said Dr. Erland, not bothering to conceal his amused smile.

"That's a terrible pun right now," said Thorne. "My foot isn't working."

"It is not supposed to work yet. Now that you are awake we can begin to program your new limbs. This will take time, unless you want a control panel installed in your brain to do the work for you."

"Untie me."

Dr. Eland hesitated.

"Untie me now," Thorne growled.

"Very well," said Dr. Erland.

When Thorne's left side was free, he turned to lift up the paper-gown-thingy and scowled at the four of them. "Give a man some privacy."

They left the room quickly, telling him to press a button by his bed if he needed any help. With a cringe, he lifted the crinkly paper and began to examine his body.

Despite the masterful work and clearly expensive titanium MiB had afforded him, he realized quickly that he didn't have the stomach for this yet, vomited violently, and blacked out.

* * *

When Thorne had taken time to process his new status as a cyborg and the implications of it (read to him in a report by a somber-voiced Dr. Erland), requested some additional features (who wouldn't want hidden guns and GB's?), and denied an MiB psychologist (as if he needed therapy!), his team finally came back into the room.

He had too many questions on his mind about Sybil Mira and what else had happened since his encounter with her on the Haifo Bridge. But his mind was already overloaded with the new state of his body, which Dr. Erland had asked the surgeon to turn on. They were heavy as lead as he sat up. The grim faces of his teammates did not encourage him either.

"Give it to me straight, Jacin," he said. "Kai and Wolf will sugarcoat it."

"What do you want to know?"

"Just the essentials. Is Cress safe? Did you catch Elanora? Is Sybil dead? Is the Amplifier still in MiB possession?"

Jacin brushed a lock of blond hair off his forehead. "We destroyed the Amplifier. After what happened on the bridge, Rikan and Torin decided it wasn't worth keeping anymore."

"I gave Cress the Amplifier. She didn't steal it. I did."

"We know," said Kai, but Thorne shot him a look that silenced him. He gestured at Jacin to continue.

"And yes, we caught Elanora," he said, curling his lip. "Took about a month and a lot of collaboration with MiB Australia. She was a mole. If we hadn't been working on a big case like Sybil's, someone might have noticed that all of her information was falsified. We've tightened up security since—"

"You need to take a refresher course in technology, Thorne!" said Kai, cutting off Jacin with an angry huff. "You had complete access to all her files at your apartment! You _saw_ them."

Thorne frowned. "You have surveillance at my apartment?"

"No," said Kai, exasperated. "_You _do!"

"And you watched it?"

Wolf cleared his throat. "We had to, buddy. Trying to piece together all of the missing links wasn't easy with you in a box."

"It was painful for everyone involved," said Jacin dryly.

"Shut up."

Jacin smirked and waited until Thorne threw up one hand in surrender and told him to go on.

"As for Cress…" Jacin paused. "It was tricky. With everything that had happened from the time Sybil kidnapped her to you going rogue, we had to assume the worst when we got to the bridge and she had the Amplifier."

Thorne's heart dropped into his stomach. "You didn't?"

"No," said Kai quickly, "she's alive."

"But it was messy," said Wolf.

Thorne, who hadn't realized that he'd sat up so straight in the bed, relaxed against the cushions and let out a long breath.

Jacin said, "We didn't realize that she was trying to help you. We got there and saw Sybil stabbing you and then all of a sudden Sybil was stabbing herself and Cress took down one of her henchmen and then agents weren't able to shoot anymore. You got up, walking around like a zombie, and Elanora was shouting that Cress was controlling you, and by the state of your wounds it was clear she was. Cress wouldn't drop her glamour so the backup agents in the second hover shot her. Protocol."

Thorne sucked in a breath.

"It was a clean shot." Kai held up his hands, as if asking Thorne for forgiveness. "Only a flesh wound, Thorne. Enough to break her concentration and drop the glamour until we could subdue her."

"We didn't realize she was trying to help you," Wolf repeated apologetically. "Until Elanora pushed you off the bridge and all hell broke loose."

The three of them all looked embarrassed.

"But she had the Amplifier," said Thorne. "She should have been able to control _everyone_, including the hover."

Jacin shrugged. "We were wrong about the Amplifier. We've only seen it used in the hands of extremely powerful Lunars. Cress is barely average, at best, and she hadn't used her glamour properly in a long time because of our regulations"—he exchanged another sheepish look with the guys—"so she was out of practice. As the name suggests, the Amplifier only amplifies the_ user's_ powers. She barely had enough strength with it to try to get you help, let alone control everyone else."

"But she's okay? She survived the shot, you said."

Thorne tried to imagine Cress on the Haifo Bridge, facing Kai, Wolf, Jacin, Elanora, and any other agents who he hadn't seen show up. He saw her tear-stained face, her dirtied blue dress. The one he'd loved. He imagined her silhouetted against the moonlight, eyes closed, putting all of her energy into the Amplifier. To save him.

_The voice in his head had been her glamour._

"Another hover took her, Sybil and the other two men to MiB headquarters. Everyone else focused on finding you and Elanora."

"What was I stuck to in the river?"

Jacin raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"In the river, I got pushed to the bottom and was drowning because I was stuck to something."

"No you weren't," said Jacin, frowning.

"You were tossed around by the river pretty badly," said Kai, "but we got you downstream. You were floating in the water like a dead man."

"Huh." Thorne let his head fall against the pillow.

"Once you were in the tank, the Amplifier was destroyed, and search teams were out looking for Elanora. We interrogated Cress and then we put her in an MiB cell."

Thorne's jaw dropped open, then he glared at Jacin. "Excuse me?"

He shrugged again. "She used glamour illegally."

"Because _I _told her to! An agent of the MiB!"

"You were suspended."

"She didn't know that!" Now Thorne imagined Cress in her blue dress, still, but this time behind bars, lonely and cold and sad and wishing she'd never met him.

"Okay, let's all calm down a minute," said Wolf, putting a hand on Jacin's shoulder. "She was only in jail for a little while until we figured out what was going on. We've gotten to know Cress since then. We like her. She's a sweet girl."

"She's—" Thorne stopped, ready to defend Cress, then realized he didn't need to. He pressed his lips together.

"She came by often to see you while you were in the suspension tank," said Kai, finally breaking into a gentle smile.

Thorne didn't return it.

"She still cares about you."

Looking down at his right side, Thorne shook his head. "She shouldn't."

Jacin snorted. "Because you're a cyborg now?"

"Because I almost got her killed. I was blasé about the rules and just took what I wanted. She's Lunar and I'm an Earthen agent, remember?"

_Cress always deserved better than a cad like me. _

"You're still suspended, by the way," said Jacin, nonplussed.

Kai groaned. "That was full of tact."

"What? He said not to sugarcoat anything."

Thorne closed his eyes. "How long am I suspended?"

"Rikan said six months and then probation for at least a year," said Kai, grimacing. "But it's better than jail or getting kicked off MiB entirely. I think the review board was lenient because you helped us catch Sybil Mira. Plus, we put in a good word for you."

"And two of those months are already over," said Wolf, giving him a thumbs up.

Thorne swore. "What am I supposed to do for the next four months?"

Jacin crossed his arms and looked at Thorne like he was the dumbest person on the planet. "Take some time off. Figure out how to use your limbs and become the best damn agent MiB has ever seen. You have any idea how fast you'll be able to run once you've had some training?"

"Yes," said Thorne sourly, "I'm aware of the capabilities of cyborgs."

"You're still not going to be able to beat me in a race, though," said Jacin.

"I beat you once," said Kai.

"You got lucky," Jacin huffed.

"We also got you a new apartment," said Wolf, then rushed on before Thorne could protest again. "We weren't sure how many people Elanora told about your agent pad. Of course, we assume your personal apartment hasn't been compromised. Cress hasn't see that one, has she?"

"No," said Thorne, growing exasperated. "But how should I know? Maybe she hacked into my personal records too."

"She didn't," said Jacin.

"And how would you know? You saw those netscreens! My face was on them!"

Wolf held up a hand. "We've investigated Cress thoroughly. She cooperated and gave us everything we wanted, including access to all of her hacked files. That was another reason we put her in a cell, Thorne. She did have MiB files on her person, and admitted to hacking into them illegally. But she didn't put your picture up as a screensaver. That was Elanora acting under Sybil's orders."

"She had files of me and her dressed up in matching agent clothes!" As soon as Thorne had said it aloud, he regretted it.

Kai's ears turned a slight shade of pink, and Thorne knew he shouldn't have said anything. But Kai laughed awkwardly. "Yes, that was definitely Cress. She has a bit of an…overactive imagination." He laughed again. "But her skills are unparalleled. She helped us track down Elanora. It seems that she's been wanting to become an agent since she met you."

"She could have said something."

"She didn't think you'd take her seriously. She's extremely embarrassed that you saw those pictures."

"I'll bet."

"Torin has her training to be a tech agent," said Wolf.

Thorne looked away. Cress, a tech agent? Cress, working at MiB? Cress, comm'ing field agents with information? It was too much to process.

"We thought you'd be happy about that news," said Kai.

Thorne shrugged with one shoulder.

"Do you want us to call her and let her know you're awake?"

"No."

His answer was met with silence, but he didn't make eye contact with the guys. He wanted them to leave. He wanted to be alone.

"Are you sure?" said Kai finally. "I'm sure she'd want to see you."

"It's better if Cress just forgets about me."

"Thorne…"

"I said no."

He faced the other side of the bed and said nothing until the guys left the room.

* * *

Thorne had initially felt noble at the idea of Cress getting over him, but after two months of training on his own and working with his cybernetic surgeon to perfect the connection to his new titanium limbs, he realized that it was him who needed time to get over her.

Cress had made much more of an impact on him than he'd realized, but it had taken a life-altering experience and a clean break to realize it.

Some days he wondered if he'd fallen in love with Cress.

But he couldn't go to Cress now, not after what had happened. Cress would think that he only wanted to be with her now because she was training to be an agent. Or worse, that it was because he was just a cyborg now, and didn't even have his good looks anymore to offer to anyone else.

Some days he wondered if he just missed having someone to fall asleep next to.

* * *

One evening, in a moment of weakness, he decided to walk to Cress's neighborhood. His new agent pad was on the opposite side of town now, so there was no real reason for him to be in that neighborhood anymore.

He only wanted to pass by the flower shop, for nostalgia's sake. He wasn't going to go to Cress's apartment, of course. It was mere coincidence that it was a few blocks away.

A short walk later, he was in front of her apartment. He swallowed, remembering the last time he'd dropped her off here, just wanting to get back to his own place even though she'd asked him to stay.

He was never one to dwell on the past, but he had wondered many times what might have happened if he'd said yes to her offer. Would Sybil never have been able to take Cress captive in the first place? Would he have been able to kill whoever had come to take her away?

A silhouette appeared in her dimly lit window, and Thorne jumped back, remembering where he was, who he was.

A quick pivot and he was in the shadows, knowing she wouldn't be able to see him from her angle. He waited, holding his breath, to catch a glimpse of her face. He could make out the back of her head, with her cropped hair outlined against her neck.

"Turn around, Cress," he whispered.

A second shape appeared next to her, and he saw her retreat, away from the window and towards whoever was there. The light went out shortly after.

Thorne balled up his cyborg fist, spun on his heels, and disappeared into another alley.

* * *

"That was awesome!" said Kai, slapping his shoulder. "We need to go out for celebratory drinks after all that."

Thorne grinned proudly. "Bet you didn't think I had that in me after six months off."

"Respect, man, respect," said Kai, shaking his head.

"You still didn't beat me," said Jacin smugly.

Thorne didn't even care about Jacin's quip. He was back, his flying skills were as on par as ever, and the mission had gone exactly as planned.

He was still Agent T, and he was still unstoppable.

"How's it feel to be re-instated?" said Wolf, loosening the tie around his neck. He dropped his shades in his locker and kicked it shut.

"Not quite re-instated yet," said Thorne, but it was hard to keep the cockiness out of his tone. "Gotta fly under the radar this year."

"Good luck with that," said Jacin sarcastically. He winked at Thorne though, and then threw his duffel bag over his shoulder. "Count me out for drinks, boys. Off to see Winter for the weekend."

Thorne, Kai, and Wolf whistled and teased him for a minute, then saw him off.

"Good to have you back, Thorne," said Jacin, before shutting the door to the locker room behind him.

"I'm actually pretty tired too," said Wolf. "But I'd be up for a quick snack in MiB cafeteria before I head out."

Thorne clicked his tongue. "Fine, fine, just the cafeteria for tonight. But you owe me a round of drinks later."

"After that mission, I can't help but agree."

Kai laughed, and the three of them headed out of the locker room as well. They strolled up through the winding MiB corridors, chatting excitedly about everything that had gone down. Being an agent was such a rush, and a successful mission boosted _all _of their egos.

They were nearly at the cafeteria when Thorne stopped abruptly at the sight of Cress rounding the corner in front of him. He planted his right leg too hard into the ground, and he could hear the audible crunch of titanium against his shoe.

MiB headquarters was huge. They weren't on the tech side of the base. He hadn't thought he'd run into her for at least a few days, and when he did, he had planned for it _not_ be when he had just returned from a mission, hadn't showered, and was totally caught off guard.

He turned self-consciously to favor his left side. The human side.

Cress watched him with wide blue eyes, her arms cradling what looked like a stack of portscreens. Her hair was a little longer than the last time he'd seen her, just reaching her shoulders, and she was still dressed in uniform.

She looked _good._

Thorne had to bite down on his tongue to keep from saying something inappropriate.

"Hey Cress," said Kai. "Can we help you with anything? You look overwhelmed."

Wolf grabbed Kai by the jacket before he could begin to walk forward. "Kai and I were just leaving. I'm sure if you need anything, Thorne can take care of you. Take care of it, I mean," he quickly corrected. Thorne cast an annoyed glance at his two team members. Wolf cleared his throat loudly. "Nice to see you, Cress."

Cress nodded at them as the two stalked off towards the cafeteria. Thorne felt rooted to the ground, paralyzed by Cress's presence and his inability to say anything interesting. The guys had told him she'd asked about him, but he'd ignored any opportunities to interact with her.

He had thought six months had been enough to rid his mind of any remaining feelings for the pretty Lunar girl with the moon tattoo. These days, she only crossed his mind while he tried to fall asleep clumsily on one side or the other—neither felt quite right with so much metal attached to him.

But now, seeing her, he wasn't prepared for the way his heart beat frantically, trying to find a way to reconcile all the emotions coursing through him.

Thorne stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Hey."

Cress studied him for an instant, her eyes a little too intense for his liking. He stared nervously at the ground. Any second now Cress would give him a haughty look and walk past him. He knew he deserved it.

Cress burst into tears.

The portscreens clattered to the ground as she rushed forward and threw her arms around him. Thorne stiffened instantly, first of shock, then of worry that she would feel metal instead of flesh. But as Cress sobbed into his shirt, Thorne slowly relaxed and let his arms—both of them—work their way around her too.

"Hey, shh, it's okay," he said. "It's okay."

"I was so worried," she said.

"Nah, I'm fine. You think a few bullets could break me?" He lifted his finger to stroke her hair, but dropped it before he could make impact. Maybe that wasn't what she wanted. Maybe she just needed to know he was alive and safe. The way he had needed to know that about her.

Cress shook her head and looked up at him through tear-stained eyes. "I'm sorry," she sniffed, taking a quick step backward. "I didn't mean to get so emotional. You know—_knew_—me. Sort of." She cringed and took another step back, then scrambled to pick up her portscreens.

Thorne stooped to help her. Seeing him had clearly upset her, and he didn't know how to fix it. This was why he had avoided her, he reminded himself. He was only skilled at tearing things down, not at building them up.

And yet everything inside him was screaming to take her home.

He was so messed up.

"I thought you'd at least contact me," she said, taking the last portscreen from him. "But I understand why you didn't. You have every right to think I'm a crazy stalker. I—I don't have to come down this hallway anymore, if that's where your team usually goes. And once—once I've passed training, I'll put in a request to a different MiB base." She breathed in a few more times, trying to steady herself, and managed to put on a cordial smile. "There's not much keeping me in New Beijing anyway."

Thorne was having trouble breathing properly himself, though he was much better at hiding it than she was. "No," he said quickly. What was she saying? Cress had saved him and she was the one apologizing? "Please don't do that. I don't think you're a…a stalker. I'm the one who's sorry, Cress. I should have contacted you. I needed some time to adjust to my new situation." He extended his cyborg arm, holding his palm up, making sure she got a good look at it. It was only a half lie, but she didn't need to know that he had also needed time to get over her.

Time had definitely not been enough for that, though. Now that she'd mentioned her stay in New Beijing, he found all sorts of questions wanting to burst out of him. Why had she come to New Beijing in the first place? Why did she not feel like she belonged here? Where would she go, if she decided to leave? Why had she never told him about her skills in hacking?

And most importantly, why had he never bothered to ask her these questions before?

"I'm sorry, Cress," he said again, hoping his sincerity was evident for once. "This is terribly inappropriate of me I'm sure, but you know—_knew_—me as well. Sort of." His mouth tilted into a half-smile at the repetition of her words. "Would you want to get a coffee with me?" he blurted, then looked away.

"Now?"

Thorne glanced up, hopeful, then his eyes snagged on the digital clock behind her on the wall. It was past eleven p.m. His first thought went to wondering why she was working so late on a Friday, and his second thought went to what she must be thinking.

Agent T only wanted to hang out with Cress late at night. He was skilled at coming over, staying a few hours, and then disappearing again. He liked to sneak around, play games, and didn't like to be seen with her in public.

An eleven p.m. "coffee" would sound suspicious to him too.

"No," he said. "It's getting late and I have to get home. I thought, perhaps, next week some time. If you want." Remembering her late night visitor, he added, "And if your boyfriend doesn't mind. We should catch up."

Cress's eyes widened. "I don't have a boyfriend."

"Oh." Thorne processed this momentarily. "In that case, how about dinner?"

A small blush spread across her neck. Stars, he loved it when she blushed. She looked like she wanted to nod, but she clutched her portscreens against her chest tighter instead. "Like…a real dinner?"

"As opposed to a fake dinner?"

"No," she said shyly, taking a step closer to him. "I meant…at a restaurant?"

Thorne laughed, relief washing over him. "Yes, at a restaurant. Your pick."

Cress considered him. "So…it's a date?" Her body language told him she didn't believe him, and it made his left palm feel sweaty.

"If you want it to be," he hedged. She didn't respond though, so he decided to throw caution to the wind and reclaim some of his Agent T swagger. "Yes, Cress, I'd like to take you on a date. I'd like all of New Beijing to see that I'm on a date with the prettiest girl I know."

"For a Lunar," she said, the blush spreading to her cheeks.

"No," he said, smiling more than he had in weeks. "For anyone."


End file.
